ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 25 -- United States Patent no. 12,338,658, issued on June 24, was assigned to Paul Hettich GmbH & Co. KG (Kirchlengern, Germany).
"Coupling element, locking system and furniture" was invented by Gunter Behrmann (Kirchlengern, Germany) and Volker Pohlmann (Herford, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A coupling element for coupling a locking bar of a piece of furniture has a plurality of pull-out furniture parts to an activator coupled directly or indirectly to one of the pull-out furniture parts has a housing which can be placed against the locking bar, a driver which is mounted displaceably in the housing and is operatively connected to the locking bar for locking an...