ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,494,601, issued on Dec. 9, was assigned to Nippon Tanshi Co. Ltd. (Hiratsuka, Japan).
"Connector" was invented by Shinya Enomoto (Kanagawa, Japan) and Osamu Nishimura (Kanagawa, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A connector includes a housing defining a terminal holding chamber extending in a prescribed direction, a terminal member inserted to the terminal holding chamber along a prescribed insertion direction, and a retainer attached to the housing by being inserted to the housing along a direction perpendicular to the insertion direction so as to engage with a locking portion of the terminal member and thereby prevent the terminal me...