Patent ID: 8186729

Claim:
A bi-swing gate lock, comprising: a pocket provided inside a face of a post facing a swinging end of a gate; a pair of gate catches mounted in said pocket and configured to catch and lock said swinging end of said gate between the pair of gate catches when said gate catches are in an extended position, and such that a retraction of either one of the gate catches permits a swing opening of the gate; a pair of pivot arms, each pivot arm having a pivot bearing at one end about which the pivot arm rotates, and each pivot arm connected to a respective gate catch at an opposite distal end, and fully disposed inside said pocket, wherein each of the pivot arms rotates in a plane substantially parallel to one another and to the plane of said gate when closed; an actuating mechanism operably connected to each pivot arm configured to maintain the gate catches in the extended position or to move at least one of the gate catches to a retracted position; and each gate catch having a side-loading pad positioned on an outermost side surface of each of said gate catches, each side-loading pad limits lateral deflections of the gate catches within said pocket and resist a forcing open of an otherwise locked gate by transferring a lateral force through a corresponding side-loading pad to an inside lateral wall of said pocket and thereby not allowing a respective pivot arm pivot bearing to be stressed from an attempt to force open the locked gate.