ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,257,729, issued on March 25, was assigned to Microtech Knives Inc. (Mills River, N.C.).
"Pocket knife" was invented by Anthony Louis Marfione (Mills River, N.C.) and John Crawford (Canton, N.C.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A pocket knife includes a chassis and an insert engaged with the chassis, wherein the insert defines an insert surface. A blade has a retracted position in which the blade is inside of the chassis and a deployed position in which at least a portion of the blade is outside of the chassis. An actuator is slidingly engaged with the chassis to reposition the blade between the retracted and deployed positions. A lock is ...