ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,331,530, issued on June 17, was assigned to Unilin BV (Wielsbeke, Belgium).
"Flooring element" was invented by Kristof Van Vlassenrode (Deinze, Belgium) and Jurgen Goessens (Dalton, Ga.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Floor element comprising a top layer (102) attached to a substrate layer (104), in which the top layer (102) is itself layered, the top layer (102) comprising: -an optional backing layer (122) made of flexible polymer, -a flexible or semi-rigid polymer layer (124), onto or into which optionally at least one reinforcing layer (126) is attached or embedded, and -a finishing layer comprising a decorative layer (132), a wearing ...