ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,306,578, issued on May 20, was assigned to FUSO CHEMICAL Co. LTD. (Osaka, Japan).

"Hydrophobic silica powder and toner resin particle" was invented by Kazui Omokawa (Fukuchiyama, Japan), Yuma Negishi (Fukuchiyama, Japan) and Yasuhiro Fuma (Kawasaki, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present invention provides a hydrophobic silica powder having a small particle size, a narrow particle size distribution, and a high hydrophobicity, and containing a very small amount of organic acid, and toner resin particles having the hydrophobic silica powder on the surface thereof. A hydrophobic silica powder having a particle size (D50) as measur...