ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,312,854, issued on May 27, was assigned to Magna Exteriors Inc. (Aurora, Canada).
"Multi-access liftgate" was invented by Luyao Zhu (Troy, Mich.), Marc Cogswell (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) and Robert M. Horner (Ferndale, Mich.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A multi-way liftgate assembly providing a plurality of dividers dividing the rear cargo area of a passenger vehicle into a plurality of secure areas assessable from a plurality of panels forming a liftgate to provide controlled access to one or more of those compartments. The vehicle operator has secure control of which portions of the cargo area can be selectively accessed. The multi-w...