ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,316,247, issued on May 27, was assigned to CANON K.K. (Tokyo).
"Vibration wave driving apparatus" was invented by Kohei Karasawa (Tochigi, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A vibration wave driving apparatus includes a vibrator configured to vibrate and movable relative to a friction member to generate a driving force, a pressing member configured to pressurize the vibrator, a transmission member configured to transmit a pressing force by the pressing member to the vibrator, a holding member configured to hold the vibrator, and a viscoelastic member configured to connect the holding member and the transmission member to each other."
...