ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,216,324, issued on Feb. 4, was assigned to Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co. Ltd. (Osaka, Japan).
"Lens barrel" was invented by Takahiro Matsukawa (Osaka, Japan) and Taku Ichikawa (Osaka, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A lens barrel 10 comprises a substantially cylindrical first lens group unit 11 that holds a lens L1, and a substantially cylindrical front frame unit 12 that is disposed in a state of being close to the outer peripheral surface side of the substantially cylindrical first lens group unit 11. The first lens group unit 11 has a rectilinear key 11c that protrudes outward in the radial direction on the outer ...