ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,299,611, issued on May 13, was assigned to KAKAO CORP. (Jeju-si, South Korea).

"Method and apparatus for providing counseling service" was invented by Han Yong Park (Seongnam-si, South Korea), Hye Jin Oh (Seongnam-si, South Korea), Jae Il Lee (Seongnam-si, South Korea), Geon Woo Kim (Seongnam-si, South Korea), Jun Kyu Park (Seongnam-si, South Korea), Chan Hui Seok (Seongnam-si, South Korea) and Seung Hwan Lee (Seongnam-si, South Korea).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Provided are a method and apparatus for providing a counseling service. A method of operating a counseling center server interworking with an instant messaging service include...