US Patent Issued to RICOH on Dec. 23 for "Functional expansion unit, electronic device, and image forming apparatus" (Japanese Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,504,710, issued on Dec. 23, was assigned to RICOH COMPANY LTD. (Tokyo).

"Functional expansion unit, electronic device, and image forming apparatus" was invented by Hiroaki Nieda (Kanagawa, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An attachment structure includes a positioning shaft of a functional expansion unit attachable to an electronic device; a lock member of the functional expansion unit; and a positioning lock member of the electronic device. The positioning lock member includes: a positioning hole into which the positioning shaft is insertable in an attachment direction; and a lock-engageable part engageable with the lock member. The...