US Patent Issued to MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC on May 20 for "Image-reading device comprising a plurality of optical components arranged along the scanning direction and housing components arranged to have a first clearance therebetween, board components arranged to have a second clearance therebetween and the first clearance and the second clearance are arranged to be staggered in the scanning direction" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,309,334, issued on May 20, was assigned to MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC Corp. (Tokyo).

"Image-reading device comprising a plurality of optical components arranged along the scanning direction and housing components arranged to have a first clearance therebetween, board components arranged to have a second clearance therebetween and the first clearance and the second clearance are arranged to be staggered in the scanning direction" was invented by Mizuki Ogawa (Tokyo), Daisuke Fukui (Tokyo), Toru Shiraki (Tokyo) and Eiji Niikura (Tokyo).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An image reading device includes a board including a plurality of imaging elements...