US Patent Issued to MAZDA MOTOR on April 15 for "Hood structure for vehicle" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,275,456, issued on April 15, was assigned to MAZDA MOTOR Corp. (Hiroshima, Japan).

"Hood structure for vehicle" was invented by Kozo Ishizuka (Aki-gun, Japan), Kazuhiko Mori (Aki-gun, Japan), Kouichi Matsumoto (Aki-gun, Japan) and Hiroshi Mizuguchi (Aki-gun, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A hood structure for a vehicle ensures rigidity of a front portion of an outer panel and a high level of pedestrian protection. The hood structure includes an outer panel defining external appearance; an inner panel on a prime mover chamber side of the outer panel; and a stiffener in a front portion of the inner panel. The inner panel has an upper ...