Ricoh Assigned Patent

Ricoh Company Limited, Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (9,110,402) developed by Takahashi, Yasufumi, Ohyama, Kunihiro, Tokyo, Japan, Yamane, Masayuki, Uchitani, Takeshi, Hayakawa, Tadashi, Takahashi, Takuji, Okabe, Shouji, Kanagawa, Japan, Shinshi, Akira, Tokyo, Japan, Ueda, Yuichiro, Takahashi, Masaki, and Satoh, Yuuki, Kanagawa, Japan, for a “apparatus and method for preventing an information storage device from falling from a removable device.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An information storage device installed in a removable device configured to be removably installed in an image forming apparatus body, includes: an information storage unit that stores information communicated between the image forming apparatus body and the removable device, a terminal that comes in contact with a body side terminal, and a substrate that holds the information storage unit and the terminal and includes a hole configured to be engaged with a protruding section installed in the image forming apparatus body. The terminal includes a plurality of terminals each including one of a plurality of metallic plates arranged in a transverse direction thereof. An earth terminal, which comes in contact with a body side earth terminal formed in the protruding section, is formed in the hole. The hole is disposed at a position sandwiched between two metallic plates among the plurality of metallic plates.“

The patent application was filed on October 7, 2013 (14/047,755).