ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 24 -- 3M Innovative Properties, St. Paul, Minnesota, has been assigned a patent (8,777,473) developed by four co-inventors for a "light device." The co-inventors are Eric Schmuck, Dusseldorf, Germany, Hans-Gerd Vollmers, Cologne, Germany, Manfred Bosler, Willich, Germany, and Tilo Remhof, Hilden, Germany.

The patent application was filed on Dec. 9, 2011 (13/885,441). The full text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=P . . .