ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,258,310, issued on March 25, was assigned to ECOLAB USA INC. (Saint Paul, Minn.).

"Solid peroxyalphahydroxycarboxylic acid generation compositions and the use thereof" was invented by Junzhong Li (Saint Paul, Minn.), Allison Prideaux (Saint Paul, Minn.) and Richard Staub (Saint Paul, Minn.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Peroxyhydroxycarboxylic acid forming compositions and methods for forming peroxyhydroxycarboxylic acids, preferably in situ, using the peroxyhydroxycarboxylic acid forming compositions are disclosed. Methods of using the peroxyhydroxycarboxylic acids, including for treating a surface or a target in need of antimicrobial ...