ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,506,993, issued on Dec. 23, was assigned to Sonova Consumer Hearing GmbH (Wedemark, Germany).
"Earphone" was invented by Jan Peter Kuhtz (Celle, Germany) and Thomas Trommer (Hannover, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "To secure earphones in the auditory canal of a user, ear tips are used. In an improved earphone, which reduces or avoids pressure sores occurring in the ear of the user, a hard stub of the housing no longer protrudes as hitherto into the ear tip, and instead a soft receiving tube of the ear tip is secured in the housing. By means of this inverse receiving principle, the ear tip can better conform to the auditory canal ...