ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,310,457, issued on May 27, was assigned to NIKE Inc..
"Upper for article of footwear" was invented by Kevin R. Derr (Portland, Ore.), Martin E. Evans (Portland, Ore.), Chin-Chen Huang (Taichung, Taiwan), Cassidy R. Levy (West Linn, Ore.), Matthew D. Nordstrom (Portland, Ore.), Guillermo Raffaele (Portland, Ore.) and Hyo Young Kim (Busan, South Korea).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An upper for an article of footwear includes a fixed closure disposed on one of a medial side and a lateral side of the upper, a plurality of parallel first strands each extending from a first end attached to the other one of the medial side and the lateral side...