ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 28 -- United States Patent no. 12,537,352, issued on Jan. 27, was assigned to Panduit Corp. (Tinley Park, Ill.).
"Combination outlet" was invented by Ronald A. Nordin (Naperville, Ill.) and Masud Bolouri-Saransar (Orland Park, Ill.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A combination outlet capable of accepting a C14 and C20 plug has a central contact retaining portion and a plurality of tabs surrounding the central contact retaining portion. The tabs are configured to move toward and away from a center of the central contact retaining portion such that the tabs engage an inner surface of a housing of the C20 plug and an exterior surface of a housing of the C14 plug."
The paten...