ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,245,569, issued on March 11, was assigned to Doskocil Manufacturing Co. Inc. (Arlington, Texas).
"Pet toy" was invented by Jill Jackson (Fort Worth, Texas), Ron Bagley (Dallas), Sunil Pinto (Arlington, Texas) and Josiah Wilhelm (Fort Worth, Texas).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A pet toy includes a body portion and a sliding portion. The body portion has a curved top portion with an inwardly extending arcuate side portion. The sliding portion is attached to a bottom surface of the body portion and is formed from rigid plastic so as to have a reduced coefficient of friction with a surface on which the pet toy is to slide."
The patent was...