ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 4 -- United States Patent no. 12,319,188, issued on June 3, was assigned to TOYOTA JIDOSHA K.K. (Aichi-Ken, Japan).
"Vehicle entrance structure" was invented by Tomoo Nakamoto (Toyota, Japan), Noriyo Inagaki (Anjo, Japan), Yukie Suzuki (Toyota, Japan) and Kan Hayashida (Toyota, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A vehicle entrance structure includes a body panel disposed in a rear part on a peripheral region of an entrance of a vehicle body, and configured to be exposed when a vehicle door is open. The body panel includes an assist surface having a predetermined area to support a hand of a user boarding or getting off of the vehicle. The assist surface is disposed at a...