ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,442,196, issued on Oct. 14, was assigned to UNILIN BV (Wielsbeke, Belgium).
"Floor panel" was invented by Kristof Van Vlassenrode (Deinze, Belgium), Paul Brusseel (Nazareth, Belgium), Nick Vanhulle (Anzegem, Belgium) and Jochen Bossuyt (Tiegem, Belgium).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A floor panel with a substrate, including thermoplastic material, a decor provided thereon, and, on at least one pair of opposite edges, coupling parts realized at least partially from the substrate. The coupling parts allow a mechanical locking between two of such floor panels, where the substrate includes a rigid, non-foamed substrate layer of thermoplastic...