ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,492,040, issued on Dec. 9, was assigned to Schoeller Allibert GmbH (Schwerin, Germany).
"Stackable and nestable container" was invented by Erik Brinkers (Emmen, Netherlands).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A container includes a base and conically formed, hollow corner columns that project from the base and are open on the underside of the base. Corner columns of another, structurally identical or compatible container can penetrate into the hollow corner columns of the container from the underside of the base, so that the two containers can be nested. The corner columns can be closed by a slide element so that the container can be stacked o...