ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,313,193, issued on May 27, was assigned to VOSS Automotive GmbH (Wipperfurth, Germany).

"Screw part having annular cross-section" was invented by Markus Berger (Wipperfurth, Germany), Harald Hagen (Wipperfurth, Germany), Daniel De Beer (Engelskirchen, Germany), Gunter Sieper (Remscheid, Germany), Reiner Mitterer (Wipperfurth, Germany), Peter Diederichs (Marienheide, Germany), Martin Johnen (Wipperfurth, Germany) and Evelin Rosowski (Wipperfurth, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A screw part with an annular cross-section and having a base element that is hollow, cylindrical and at least partially injection-molded from a plasticized ...