ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 13 -- United States Patent no. 12,520,905, issued on Jan. 13, was assigned to adidas AG (Herzogenaurach, Germany).

"Method of manufacturing a particle foam part, especially a cushioning element for sportswear or sporting goods" was invented by Bastian Gothe (Erlangen, Germany), Max Kurtz (Erlangen, Germany), Christoph Dyckmans (Nuremberg, Germany), Amir Fathi (Ho Chi Minh, Viet Nam), Harald Sommer (Kreuzwertheim, Germany), Victor Romanov (Kreuzwertheim, Germany) and Uwe Rothaug (Kreuzwertheim, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a particle foam part, in particular a cushioning element for sportswear, such as ...