ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,396,526, issued on Aug. 26, was assigned to YKK Corp. (Tokyo).
"Fastener chain" was invented by Satoki Tamai (Kurobe, Japan), Takumi Arai (Kurobe, Japan), Aditya Niranjan Abhyankar (Kurobe, Japan) and Mariko Nakase (Kurobe, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A fastener chain according to the present invention includes left and right fastener stringers. Each fastener stringer includes a fastener tape and an element row. The element row is formed of fastener elements arranged in a coil shape. The fastener tape includes an element-attached portion and a tape bent portion extending from the element-attached portion and bent in a substantia...