ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,332,264, issued on June 17, was assigned to GEN-PROBE Inc. (San Diego).
"Disposable pipette tip management" was invented by David H Combs (San Diego), Norbert D. Hagen (Carlsbad, Calif.), Ayra Baker (Escondido, Calif.) and Joseph Reed Ellis (Solana Beach, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "After disposable pipette tips are used by an automated pipettor, they are released by the pipettor and fall into a waste container. When the waste container is removed to be emptied, the pipette tips are temporarily sequestered in a pipette tip holding station so that the automated pipettor may operate uninterrupted. After the waste container is rep...