ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,461,482, issued on Nov. 4, was assigned to CANON K.K. (Tokyo).
"Operation unit and image forming apparatus" was invented by Shingo Hattori (Gunma, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An operation unit for image forming apparatus is disclosed. The operation unit includes: a bearing portion configured to rotatably support a shaft portion; a restricting portion provided at a position different from that of the bearing portion in an axial direction of the shaft portion, a restricting portion being configured such that when a supporting portion is rotated in a first direction from a first angle toward a second angle, the restricting portion r...