ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 10 -- United States Patent no. 12,290,037, issued on May 6, was assigned to Lettuce Grow by TFP LLC (Marina Del Rey, Calif.).

"Vertical garden with nestable, leakproof design" was invented by Corey Levin (Austin, Texas), Peter Kaltenbach (Austin, Texas), Pip Tompkin (Sherman Oaks, Calif.) and Jacob Pechenik (Los Angeles).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A vertical garden having an assemblage of parts that facilitates packaging and transportation in a disassembled state and/or one or more features that provide an enhanced leakproof design. The assemblage includes a base and planter modules that are stackable atop the base to form a vertical column of stacked modules for grow...