ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,539,692, issued on Feb. 3, was assigned to SIG Services AG (Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Switzerland).

"Flat-shaped composite material, package sleeve and package with trapezoidal gable" was invented by Norman Gierow (Duesseldorf, Germany), Philippe Hauser (Schaffhausen, Switzerland), Ali Kaylan (Duesseldorf, Germany), Thomas Keck (Aachen, Germany), Heike Klein (Duesseldorf, Germany), Stefan Mergel (Duesseldorf, Germany), Georg Schulte (Toenisvorst, Germany) and Christoph Wirtz (Linnich, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A flat-shaped composite material is represented and described for manufacturing a package, including: a polymer outer l...