Patents Issued the Week of February 9-13

2.12.26

Patent Protection & Registration

Patents grant property rights on new and useful inventions, allowing the patent holder to prevent others from using, making, or selling that invention without permission for a limited time. U.S. patents are permitted by the U.S. Constitution and are designed to promote scientific progress and invention. By allowing inventors to profit from licensing or selling their patent rights, inventors can recoup their research and development costs and benefit financially from their inventing efforts. There are three main types of patents utility, plant, and design. Utility and plant patents can last up to 20 years, while design patents can last up to 15 years. When a patent expires, the patented material enters the public domain, making it free to use by anyone without a license. U.S. patents are issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)

U.S. Patent No. 12,545,150 entitled “Rotatable Operator Station of a Work Machine” issued February 10, 2026 to Deere & Company of Moline, Illinois. Invented by Federico Pardina-Malbran of Fort Collins, Colorado, Scott N. Clark of Bettendorf, Iowa, John P. Andruch III of Le Claire, Iowa and Aaron S. Ritter of Milan, Illinois. Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to apparatuses, system, and methods for rotating an operator station relative to another portion of an agricultural machine, such as a frame of the agricultural machine, to facilitate transport of the agricultural machine from one location to another. Transportation of the agricultural machine in this may include moving the agricultural machine in a direction that is conventionally considered to be the reverse direction of the agricultural machine. The operator station may include a cab of the agricultural machine or a portion of the cab, and the operator station may include one or more displays for displaying one or more images captured by an image capture device that is directed rearwardly of the agricultural machine.

U.S. Patent No. 12,544,486 entitled “Additive Manufacturing of Vinyl, Photocrosslinkable Polymers” issued February 10, 2026 to VenoStent, Inc. of Houston, Texas. Invented by Timothy C. Boire, Jordan S. Miller, Bagrat Grigoryan and Candice Sears all also of Houston, Texas. Abstract: Various precursor solutions and methods of 3D printing and other additive manufacturing approaches are provided for the manufacture of articles using photocrosslinkable vinyl shape memory polymers. In various aspects, articles are manufactured by a process comprising (i) exposing a precursor solution to an intensity and frequency of light to initiate photo-polymerization of the precursor solution to form a layer of the article; and (ii) repeating step (i) a number of times to form the article in a layer-by-layer approach; wherein the precursor solution comprises a first polymeric precursor comprising a plurality of vinyl terminated side-chains attached thereto. A vinyl-functionalized, photocrosslinkable SMP used as an example herein is a novel variant of a previously disclosed SMP composition, with higher amounts of vinyl functionalization but similar thermomechanical properties to the SMP library previously disclosed. Moreover, a unique combination of chemistries is disclosed that incorporates the aforementioned vinyl-functionalized SMPs along with acrylate-based crosslinkers. Additional novel compositions are disclosed containing the vinyl-functionalized SMPs with additional dithiol functionalizations, vinyl-functionalized SMPs with dithiol crosslinkers, as well as vinyl-functionalized SMPs with both acrylate-based and dithiol crosslinkers, as another means to tune degradation rates and other material properties. The articles can include a variety of articles such as stents, grafts, external sheaths, and the like. Beneficially, the printed articles can include a plurality of pores having an average diameter of about 50 pm to about 5000 pm, about 500 pm to about 2000 pm, or about 1000 pm even in the absence of a photoblocker.

U.S. Patent No. 12,546,066 entitled “Self-propelled Construction Machine” issued February 10, 2026 to Wirtgen GmbH, Windhagen, Germany. Invented by Philip Verhaelen of Lohmar, Germany and Michael Engels of Montabaur, Germany. Abstract: In a self-propelled construction machine (1), in particular slipform paving machine, comprising a machine frame (2), at least three travelling devices (14), wherein the travelling devices (14) are each connected to the machine frame (2) by means of lifting columns (12), wherein at least two of the at least three travelling devices (14) are steerable by means of one each steering drive (6), wherein the respective steering drive (6) comprises at least one first part (10), which is connected to the respective travelling device (14), and one second part (16), which is connected to the respective lifting column (12), it is provided that the steering drive (6) comprises at least one first toothed rack (22), wherein the first toothed rack is movable by means of at least one first linear drive means (26), wherein teeth of the at least one toothed rack engage with teeth of at least one toothed wheel (17), and the toothed wheel is thus rotatable by means of the movement of the toothed rack.

U.S. Patent No. 12,544,766 entitled “Rock Processing Apparatus with Improved Planning of the Location of a Material Feed within a Material Buffer” issued February 10, 2026 to Kleemann GmbH of Goppingen, Germany. Invented by Tobias Böckle of Weinstadt, Germany and Thomas Kühnle of Kirchheim / Teck, Germany. Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a rock processing apparatus for crushing and/or sorting granular mineral material according to size, comprising: a material feeding apparatus including a material buffer, the material feeding apparatus having an overall feed area, at least one working unit of at least one crushing apparatus and at least one screening apparatus, at least one conveyor apparatus, a control unit, at least one sensor for detecting at least one operating parameter, the sensor being connected to the control unit, at least one output device for outputting information. The control unit is designed, in an operation with discontinuous material feed of starting material to be processed, to ascertain a local target subarea within the overall feed area, selected for the next material feed, on the basis of the at least one detection signal as location information, and to transmit the location information to the output device.

U.S. Patent No. 12,544,621 entitled “Therapeutic Glove” issued February 10, 2026 to ATS Innovations Inc. of Shelbyville, Tennessee. Invented by Téa Phillips also of Shelbyville, Tennessee. Abstract: Disclosed herein are gloves comprising a glove body configured to retain the hand of a wearer in a compressed or partially compressed configuration, and a tension assembly. The tension assembly can be mounted at least in part to the backhand portion of the glove and can include one or more tension elements that extend along the fingers of the glove, and therefore of the wearer. The glove may also include a tension assembly mounted to the thumb portion of the glove. The tension elements can be adjustably loaded, such that they apply an adjustable force to oppose the movement of the hand, and particularly the closure of the fingers of the wearer. Thus, the glove can be used to train the grip strength of the wearer.