ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,258,795, issued on March 25, was assigned to Kiekert AG (Heiligenhaus, Germany).
"Motor vehicle lock" was invented by Omer Inan (Dorsten, Germany), Michael Scholz (Essen, Germany), Manuel Reusch (Dusseldorf, Germany) and Christian Bauer (Essen, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A motor vehicle lock which is equipped with a locking mechanism consisting substantially of a catch and a pawl. Also provided is a sensor arrangement associated with the locking mechanism comprising a fixed sensor and a sensing element that influences signals of the sensor and follows the locking mechanism, or vice versa. The sensor generates at least two di...