ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,223,783, issued on Feb. 11, was assigned to Skeleton Key Systems LLC.

"System and method for digitally providing access to an article" was invented by Michael Burns (Margate, N.J.), Adam Phillip Treiser (Washington), Adam Green (Margate, N.J.) and Eric Goldberg (Linwood, N.J.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "In one embodiment, a system for digitally providing access to an article is disclosed. The system includes a locking unit to secure and article in a locked state and a server. The server generates a digital key associated with the article or the locking unit. When the digital key is provided to a portable electronic device of a user, t...