ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,442,113, issued on Oct. 14, was assigned to NIKE Inc. (Beaverton, Ore.).
"Knitted component with a fused area" was invented by Jessica Green (Hillsboro, Ore.), Chun-Ying Hsu (Tainan, Taiwan), Jaroslav J. Lupinek (Portland, Ore.), Darryl Matthews (Portland, Ore.), William C. McFarland II (Portland, Ore.), Chun-Yao Tu (Changhua County, Taiwan), Yi-Ning Yang (Beaverton, Ore.) and Cheng-Ying Han (Kaohsiung, Taiwan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A knitted component comprising two yarns, forming at least a heel region of an upper for an article of footwear, where one of the yarns comprises a thermoplastic material. The outer surface may includ...