ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,312,780, issued on May 27, was assigned to GROHE AG (Hemer, Germany).

"Fastener for a sanitary faucet, a sanitary faucet having a fastener and a method for securing a sanitary faucet to a support" was invented by Paul Rubesamen (Meschede, Germany), Hendrik Begerow (Hemer, Germany), Stephan Venus (Menden, Germany), Franziska Kalka (Soest, Germany), Hendrik Heitkamp (Dortmund, Germany), Bertrand Tchana Tchuinou (Hagen, Germany), Pei Guo (Menden, Germany) and Horst Bachmann (Bochum, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A fastener (1) for a sanitary faucet (2) that contains a coupling body (3) that can be at least partially secured in an o...