ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,332,627, issued on June 17, was assigned to SEI OPTIFRONTIER Co. LTD. (Yokohama, Japan).

"Fusion splicing apparatus management system and fusion splicing apparatus management method" was invented by Takaharu Ohnishi (Yokohama, Japan), Kazuyoshi Ooki (Yokohama, Japan) and Hideaki Yusa (Yokohama, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A management system of a fusion splicer for selecting an appropriate maintenance base when the fusion splicer malfunctions. The management system includes a determination unit configured to determine a type of a failure mode of the fusion splicer, an acquisition unit configured to acquire position information o...