Sony Assigned Patent

Sony Corporation, Tokyo, Japan, has been assigned a patent (11,217,278) developed by Iwahashi, Yuji, Saito, Takeshi, and Kumagai, Hiroshi, Miyagi, Japan, for a “tape cartridge including reel lock member.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A tape cartridge according to an embodiment of the present technology includes: a tape reel, a cartridge case, and a reel lock member. The tape reel includes a reel hub having a bottomed cylindrical shape, a tape having been wound on the reel hub. The cartridge case includes a first protruding portion and a plurality of second protruding portions, the first protruding portion protruding toward a center of a bottom portion of the reel hub, the plurality of second protruding portions being arranged around the first protruding portion. The reel lock member is disposed inside the reel hub. The reel lock member includes a first tubular portion and a plurality of second tubular portions, the first tubular portion fitting with the first protruding portion, the plurality of second tubular portions fitting with the plurality of second protruding portions. The reel lock member is movable in a direction of the one axis between a lock position and a lock release position, the reel lock member engaging with the bottom portion of the reel hub at the lock position, engagement between the reel lock member and the bottom portion of the reel hub being released at the lock release position.”

The patent application was filed on November 1, 2019 (16/961,438).