US Patent Issued to Northwest Pipe on April 8 for "Pipe joint" (Utah Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 9 -- United States Patent no. RE50,368, issued on April 8, was assigned to Northwest Pipe Co. (Vancouver, Wash.).

"Pipe joint" was invented by Brent Keil (Salt Lake City).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A pipe joint has male and female couplers with interfitting features that join pipe sections together when the male coupler is positioned within the female coupler. The couplers can be separate rings or formed in the ends of lengths of pipe. Typically, a male coupler is at one end of a length of pipe and a female coupler is at the opposite end of the pipe. The interfitting features can include three or more ridges or teeth of a first coupler (a male coupler) and the same n...