ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,268,346, issued on April 8, was assigned to MIDEA GROUP Co. LTD. (Guangdong, China).

"High speed reusable beverage container washing system with themed lighting" was invented by Joel Boyer (Louisville, Ky.), Robert M. Digman (Goshen, Ky.) and Dylan Rowe (Buffalo, Ky.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A beverage container washing system, e.g., for use in a retail environment to wash and/or sanitize customer-provided beverage containers prior to filling the beverage containers with purchased beverages, may include a lighting system with a plurality of lights disposed on a housing of the beverage container washing system and configured to be i...