US Patent Issued to Ecolab USA on April 15 for "Microbial decontamination of common touch articles" (Minnesota Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,274,799, issued on April 15, was assigned to Ecolab USA Inc. (St. Paul, Minn.).

"Microbial decontamination of common touch articles" was invented by Steven Randall Hatch (Prior Lake, Minn.), Paul Dominic Christian (Apple Valley, Minn.) and Paul R. Kraus (Apple Valley, Minn.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An antimicrobial lighting system includes an antimicrobial lighting array that emits antimicrobial light within one or more antimicrobial wavelength ranges to inactivate one or more microorganisms on common touch surfaces. The common touch surfaces may include, for example, restaurant menus, airline safety instructions, pamphlets, instruc...