ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,442,960, issued on Oct. 14, was assigned to LEICA GEOSYSTEMS AG (Heerbrugg, Switzerland).
"Spherically mounted retroreflector" was invented by Thomas Jensen (Rorschach, Switzerland), Danick Bruhlmann (Staad, Switzerland) and Markus Fas (Oberkulm, Switzerland).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A spherically mounted retroreflector comprising an optic inlay, the optic inlay comprising a retroreflector having a vertex and an axis of symmetry, and a carrier having an at least partly spherical outer surface and a cavity, wherein the optic inlay is arranged in the cavity, and wherein the at least partly spherical outer surface has a sphere center, ...