ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,329,333, issued on June 17, was assigned to TOTO Ltd. (Fukuoka, Japan).
"Toilet device" was invented by Masahiko Watanabe (Kitakyushu, Japan), Katsushi Maeta (Kitakyushu, Japan), Fumiya Midori (Kitakyushu, Japan), Yoshitaka Imamura (Kitakyushu, Japan) and Jun Kawamata (Kitakyushu, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A toilet device includes a casing, a lock part, and a release part. The casing is mounted to an upper surface of a toilet. The lock part restricts movement of the casing with respect to the toilet. The release part releases the restriction by the lock part. The release part includes an operation part and a transmission part....