ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,297,668, issued on May 13, was assigned to Southco Inc. (Concordville, Pa.).
"Compression latch" was invented by Eric Howard Hammond (Broomall, Pa.), David A. Minnich (Lincoln University, Pa.) and Kevin A. McCloskey (West Chester, Pa.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A compression latch assembly (CLA) includes a latch subassembly that is movably mounted to a housing and includes a frame, a pawl pivotably connected to the frame and biased to move from a closed position to an open position, a trigger pivotably connected to the frame and movable between a home position and a release position, and a release arm pivotably connected to the frame...