ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,371,910, issued on July 29, was assigned to SURFACE TECHNOLOGIES GMBH & Co. KG (Baruth, Germany).
"Panel" was invented by Hans-Jurgen Hannig (Bergisch Gladbach, Germany) and Egon Hoff (Mastershausen, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A panel having a core, a top side, a underside, a first edge pair and a second edge pair. The first edge pair has a groove profile at a panel edge and a complementary tongue profile at the opposite panel edge, which cooperate in positively locking relationship so that movement of locked panels away from each other in the plane of the panels is opposed. At its opposite panel edges the second edge pair ha...