ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,259,935, issued on March 25, was assigned to MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC (Redmond, Wash.).

"Online learning platforms with enhanced search assignments" was invented by Michael Tholfsen (Newcastle, Wash.), Paul Ronald Ray (Kirkland, Wash.), Jonathan Thomas Grudin (Issaquah, Wash.), Sadiq Dhafir Alkhalili (Burnaby, Canada) and Jason James Geiger (Snohomish, Wash.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A computing device executing software displays a view of a search assignment in a user interface to a learning platform. The device receives user input comprising search terms associated with the search assignment, and generates queries based...