ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,254,516, issued on March 18, was assigned to Wells Fargo Bank N.A. (San Francisco).

"Network-based joint investment platform" was invented by Joon Maeng (Newcastle, Wash.), Andrew J. Garner IV (State Road, N.C.) and Brian J. Jacobsen (Elm Grove, Wis.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Disclosed in some examples are methods, systems, machine readable mediums that provide a network-based joint investment platform that enforces agreed-upon decision rules on jointly managed investments and provides collaboration and decision-making support tools for joint managers to make decisions about taking actions related to one or more jointly-managed ass...