ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,313,105, issued on May 27, was assigned to Inter IKEA Systems B.V. (Delft, Netherlands).
"Piece of furniture" was invented by Luc Maertens (Ardooie, Belgium), Luc Deman (Izegem, Belgium), Guy Van Hooydonck (Schoten, Belgium) and Benny Schacht (Vlamertinge, Belgium).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A piece of furniture, comprising a first and second furniture part, which are coupled to each other at an angle by means of mechanical coupling means. A female part is made as an oblong slot in the second furniture part with an insertion opening for introducing a male part. When coupling the first furniture part and the second furniture part to ea...