ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,378,731, issued on Aug. 5, was assigned to NPK ACCESS SOLUTIONS LLC (The Woodlands, Texas).

"Overlapping modular mat system including mat components having fortifying members" was invented by Randy Paul Bordelon (Opelousas, La.), James Kerwin McDowell (Enterprise, Ala.), Gaurav Agrawal (The Woodlands, Texas), Saad Aziz (The Woodlands, Texas), Dane Manuel (The Woodlands, Texas) and Adam Marcel (The Woodlands, Texas).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Mats having a body having a thickness defined between a first side and a second side, a lip extending from the body and having a thickness less than the thickness of the body, the lip having a plur...