US Patent Issued to NIKE on March 11 for "Articles of footwear with printed material deposited thereon" (Oregon Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,245,659, issued on March 11, was assigned to NIKE Inc. (Beaverton, Ore.).

"Articles of footwear with printed material deposited thereon" was invented by Ryan R. Larson (Portland, Ore.) and Todd W. Miller (Portland, Ore.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An article of apparel can include a layer disposed on the article of apparel, where the layer includes a plurality of materials each having a different hardness than an adjacent material. The plurality of materials is arranged on the article of apparel such that a stiffness of the article of apparel is gradated along a length of the article of apparel from a first portion to a second portio...