US Patent Issued to NIKE on Sept. 30 for "Bladder for a footwear sole structure" (Oregon Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,426,684, issued on Sept. 30, was assigned to NIKE Inc. (Beaverton, Ore.).

"Bladder for a footwear sole structure" was invented by Fidencio Campos II (Dallas, Ore.), Zachary M. Elder (Portland, Ore.), Jeffery C. Gagatko II (Portland, Ore.), Roger Paul Murphy (Portland, Ore.), ChunHong Wang (Beaverton, Ore.) and Doug D. Wilken (Hillsboro, Ore.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A sole structure for an article of footwear includes a bladder defining a peripheral chamber and a heel chamber fluidly isolated from the peripheral chamber. The peripheral chamber is configured as an elongated tube, and has a heel portion establishing a rear periphery...