ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,239,185, issued on March 4, was assigned to NIKE Inc. (Beaverton, Ore.).
"Midsole system with graded response" was invented by Patrick Case (Beaverton, Ore.), Zachary M. Elder (Portland, Ore.) and Lee D. Peyton (Tigard, Ore.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A sole structure for an article of footwear comprises a midsole system with a plurality of cushioning units, each having multiple cushioning layers configured to work together as a system to absorb a compressive load, such as a dynamic compressive load due to impact with the ground, in stages of progressive cushioning according to the relative stiffness values of the layers. Various mid...