ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,540,444, issued on Feb. 3, was assigned to NEXXFIELD INC. (Laval, Canada).

"Surface covering panel assembly and methods of manufacturing and of installing the same" was invented by Frederic Vachon (Ste-Dorothee, Canada) and Richard Di Pietro (Laval, Canada).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A panel assembly is designed to be installed adjacent each other comprising surface covering panels and joining padding layer panels. Surface covering panels comprises padding layer panels made of a first material, a sheet member affixed to the padding layer panel comprising edges extending beyond the padding layer panel; and a first component of a fasteni...