US Patent Issued to Starkey Laboratories on Dec. 2 for "Combined charging contact and antenna for hearing instruments" (Minnesota Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 2 -- United States Patent no. 12,490,035, issued on Dec. 2, was assigned to Starkey Laboratories Inc. (Eden Prairie, Minn.).

"Combined charging contact and antenna for hearing instruments" was invented by Babak Talebanpour (Plymouth, Minn.), Ganesh Borra (Plymouth, Minn.), Ryan Owens (Hopkins, Minn.), Gregory John Haubrich (Champlin, Minn.) and Zhenchao Yang (Eden Prairie, Minn.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A hearing instrument comprises a housing having an exterior surface and an interior surface; a rechargeable battery; a first conductor having an external segment tracing a first path on the exterior surface of the housing; and a second conductor having an external s...