ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 2 -- United States Patent no. 12,264,773, issued on April 1, was assigned to Elevation Lab Inc. (Portland, Ore.).

"Tripod mounting plates for housing tracking devices" was invented by Casey Hopkins (Portland, Ore.), Jacob Hull (Portland, Ore.) and Mitchell T. Wilson (Portland, Ore.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Tripod mounting plates for mounting a tracking device on a to-be-tracked device comprise a housing and a coupler. The housing is configured to be operatively coupled to a tripod, and the housing defines a recess configured to selectively receive and retain the tracking device. The coupler is operatively coupled to the housing and configured to be operatively cou...