ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,329,324, issued on June 17, was assigned to VORWERK & Co. INTERHOLDING GMBH (Germany).

"Food preparation appliance with multi-part attachment part" was invented by Andreas Heynen (Radevormwald, Germany), Kai Landsecker (Dusseldorf, Germany), Frank Starflinger (Saratoga, Calif.), Philipp Charopoulos (Ratingen, Germany) and Sigurd Wojke (Sprockhovel, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A food preparation appliance includes a food preparation vessel, a lid, an attachment part, a locking device, and a plurality of sensors. The lid may be placed on the food preparation vessel. The attachment part may be placed on the food preparation vesse...