US Patent Issued to NIKE on Sept. 16 for "Sole structure for article of footwear" (Oregon Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,414,610, issued on Sept. 16, was assigned to NIKE Inc. (Beaverton, Ore.).

"Sole structure for article of footwear" was invented by Matthew Chua (Beaverton, Ore.), Madeline P. Hoffert (Portland, Ore.) and Oliver McLachlan (Beaverton, Ore.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A sole structure for an article of footwear includes a first annular group of traction elements arranged along a first annular zone and a second annular group of traction elements arranged along a second annular zone concentric with the first annular group. The first and second annular groups of traction elements include a plurality of directional traction elements arrange...