ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,261,004, issued on March 25, was assigned to OMRON Corp. (Kyoto, Japan).

"Electromagnetic relay" was invented by Kohei Otsuka (Kyoto, Japan), Ayata Horie (Kyoto, Japan), Hiroyuki Iwasaka (Kyoto, Japan), Ryota Minowa (Kyoto, Japan) and Shinichi Ogawa (Kyoto, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An electromagnetic relay includes a fixed terminal, a fixed contact, a movable contact, a movable contact piece, and a dust collecting mechanism. The fixed contact is connected to the fixed terminal. The movable contact faces the fixed contact. The movable contact piece is connected to the movable contact. The movable contact piece is movable betw...