US Patent Issued to STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE on March 4 for "Detecting and utilizing a rise rate for sump pump system control" (Illinois Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,241,471, issued on March 4, was assigned to STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY (Bloomington, Ill.).

"Detecting and utilizing a rise rate for sump pump system control" was invented by Nathan L. Tofte (Downs, Ill.), Jonathan Christopher Hull (Bloomington, Ill.), John R. Donovan (Bloomington, Ill.) and Richard Jan Tjaden (Bloomington, Ill.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A sump pump system detects backflow from an outlet pipe in a sump pump system and implements control of the sump pump in light of the detected backflow (or lack thereof). The sump pump system may detect the backflow (or lack thereof) by detecting and comparing wa...