ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,358,685, issued on July 15, was assigned to MITSUBISHI PENCIL COMPANY Ltd. (Tokyo).
"Replacement lead case" was invented by Mitsuhiro Kawabata (Fujioka, Japan), Kyoichiro Nakamura (Fujioka, Japan) and Kiyoshi Fujisawa (Fujioka, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A replacement lead case includes a case body that forms an inner space surrounded by a rear surface plate and right and left leg plates as a replacement lead accommodation room and has a lid body on the tip end thereof and a case part on a rear part thereof via a bendable thin part provided on the rear surface plate, and a cover member that has a U-shaped cross-section orthogon...