ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,325,948, issued on June 10, was assigned to MIELE & CIE. KG (Gutersloh, Germany).
"Washing machine and/or dryer" was invented by Bea Ehrlich (Bielefeld, Germany), Alfons Eblenkamp (Rietberg, Germany) and Carolin Kaudewitz (Gutersloh, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A washing machine and/or dryer, having a housing, a flap integrated into the housing, and a tab made of a soft and/or flexible material, which tab is arranged on the flap such that it is arranged in a protruding manner relative to the housing and the flap, and is designed such that, by pulling on the tab, a folding of the flap from the housing is triggered."
The patent...