ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,359,602, issued on July 15, was assigned to TOYOTA JIDOSHA K.K. (Toyota, Japan).

"SOx concentration acquiring apparatus of internal combustion engine" was invented by Kazuhisa Matsuda (Atsugi, Japan), Kazuhiro Wakao (Susono, Japan) and Keiichiro Aoki (Sunto-gun, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A SOx concentration acquiring apparatus of an internal combustion engine of the invention acquires sensor currents as SOx concentration currents after a sensor voltage reaches an oxygen decreasing voltage in a reoxidation voltage decreasing control, acquires the sensor current as a base current when the sensor voltage is equal to or lower than...