ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,304,290, issued on May 20, was assigned to HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY (Seoul, South Korea) and KIA Corp. (Seoul, South Korea).
"Vehicle side structure" was invented by Eon Pyo Kim (Seoul, South Korea), Sang Gil Choi (Seoul, South Korea) and Soel Ki Choi (Icheon-si, South Korea).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A vehicle side structure including a rear impact beam mounted in a rear side door, a rear quarter section having a flange overlapping a rear portion of the rear impact beam, and a gusset aligned with the rear portion of the rear impact beam in an overlap area between the rear portion of the rear impact beam and the flange of the rear quart...