ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,250,899, issued on March 18, was assigned to Deere & Co. (Moline, Ill.).
"Mulch gate control lever" was invented by Christopher C. Warren (Beaver Dam, Wis.) and William P. Johnson (Cary, N.C.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A mulch gate control lever includes a handle that moves a mulch gate on a vertical pivot axis between a first mulching position and a second side discharge position. A torsion spring biases the handle to move into a first position slot at a first end of a slotted bracket to retain the mulch gate at the first mulching position, and into a second position slot at a second end of the slotted bracket to retain the mulch g...