ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,472,780, issued on Nov. 18, was assigned to SUMITOMO RUBBER INDUSTRIES LTD. (Kobe, Japan).
"Tire" was invented by Mitsuhiro Nishino (Kobe, Japan), Koichi Nakajima (Kobe, Japan) and Yoshifumi Kawagoe (Kobe, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A tire includes a tread portion including at least one circumferential groove extending continuously in a tire circumferential direction. The at least one circumferential groove includes a groove bottom having a plurality of protrusions projecting in a tire radial direction. Each of the plurality of protrusions has a longitudinally elongated shape with a width in a tire axial direction and a length ...