ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 8 -- United States Patent no. 12,435,459, issued on Oct. 7, was assigned to MIELE & CIE. KG (Gutersloh, Germany).

"Detergent container for a cleaning device, contacting apparatus, method and apparatus for operating a cleaning device, and cleaning device" was invented by Axel Echtermeyer (Rietberg, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A detergent container for a cleaning device (100) having a receiving slot and a contacting apparatus (106) for the detergent container (200). The detergent container has a housing for storing a detergent, wherein the housing is formed to be inserted into a receiving slot of the cleaning device (100). The detergent container has an electric...