ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 2 -- United States Patent no. 12,485,691, issued on Dec. 2, was assigned to Entrust Corp. (Shakopee, Minn.).
"Shape changing ribbon core" was invented by Matt Odden (Shakopee, Minn.), Lyle Bungert (Shakopee, Minn.) and Alex Zaborowski (Shakopee, Minn.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A ribbon core that is used with a consumable ribbon in a card processing system. The ribbon core can be a take-up core that takes-up used ribbon that has been used in a processing operation in the card processing system, or a supply core around which unused ribbon is wound and that is to be used in a processing operation in the card processing system. The ribbon core is configured to accommoda...