ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,351,970, issued on July 8, was assigned to Whirlpool Corp. (Benton Harbor, Mich.).

"Dispensing assembly for appliance" was invented by Sayer James Murphy (St. Joseph, Mich.), Christopher Aidan Hartnett (St. Joseph, Mich.), Tristan James VanFossen (Benton Harbor, Mich.), Scott E. Carpenter (Sawyer, Mich.), Joel Matthew Sells (Watervliet, Mich.), Brent Michael Burgess (Edwardsburg, Mich.), Richard Lee Hammond (Mattawan, Mich.), Gregory Edward Bauman (Stevensville, Mich.) and Demetrius Schaaf (St. Joseph, Mich.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A dispensing assembly for a laundry appliance includes a cabinet defining a cartridge port. A dispens...