ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,359,464, issued on July 15, was assigned to Iloq Oy (Oulu, Finland).
"Electromechanical lock and method" was invented by Mika Piirainen (Oulu, Finland) and Vaino Tikkanen (Oulu, Finland).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Electromechanical lock and method are disclosed. The lock includes: a movable permanent magnet to move between a first position and a second position; a stationary permanent semi-hard magnet; and an electrically powered magnetization coil positioned adjacent to the stationary permanent semi-hard magnet to switch a polarity of the stationary permanent semi-hard magnet between a first magnetization configuration and a second m...