ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,296,607, issued on May 13, was assigned to Zebra Technologies Corp. (Lincolnshire, Ill.).
"Ribbon spool locking apparatus" was invented by Huanhua Liao (Guanghzou, China), Bo Liu (Guangzhou, China) and Zhong Gui Wang (Guangzhou, China).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An example disclosure printer includes a base assembly, a lid pivotably attached to the base assembly, and a ribbon frame pivotably connected to the base. The ribbon frame is configured to receive at least one ribbon spool; a ribbon locker configured to interact with the ribbon spool via a spool gear assembly, the ribbon locker comprising: a biasing element to maintain a biasi...