ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,366,074, issued on July 22, was assigned to Dal-Tile LLC (Dallas).

"Floor element for forming a floor covering, a floor covering, and a method for manufacturing a floor element" was invented by Claudio Caselli (Dallas) and Rahul Patki (Richardson, Texas).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A floor element for forming a floor covering, the floor element comprising a decorative layer comprising a ceramic material, an intermediate layer comprising a resin material, and a support layer arranged below the decorative layer, wherein the support layer comprises edges provided with coupling elements configured to realize a mechanical coupling with coup...