ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,214,514, issued on Feb. 4, was assigned to Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp. (Brookfield, Wis.).
"Utility knife" was invented by Grant T. Squiers (Cudahy, Wis.), Steven W. Hyma (Milwaukee), Christopher S. Hoppe (Midvale, Utah), Michael Stearns (Milwaukee) and Joseph M. DeBaker (Greenfield, Wis.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A utility knife including a handle, a blade, a first blade holder, and a spare blade holder. The spare blade holder is pivotal with respect to the handle between an open position where the recess is exposed to allow a spare blade to be removed from the spare blade holder and a closed position where the recess is within a ...