ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,288,246, issued on April 29, was assigned to eyaL E-Commerce LLC (Fresno, Texas).

"Alerts for remotely-ordered grocery items" was invented by Alexica T. Laye (Fresno, Texas) and Jade O. Laye (Fresno, Texas).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present disclosure provides various methods and embodiments for alerting a customer when requested food items are not available. When a customer places a grocery request, the system determines whether the requested items are available. If the system determines the requested items are not available, an alert is sent to the customer before a scheduled pick up time."

The patent was filed on Dec. 18, 2023...