ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,214,627, issued on Feb. 4, was assigned to The Yokohama Rubber Co. LTD. (Tokyo).
"Pneumatic tire" was invented by Takashi Hoshiba (Kanagawa, Japan), Tatsuro Shinzawa (Kanagawa, Japan) and Atsuhito Nakano (Kanagawa, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A pneumatic tire includes, on a surface of a side rubber provided on sidewall portions, a two-dimensional code in which a dot pattern is formed by two types of gray scale elements distinguishable from each other by irregularities on the surface. Dot holes are formed in the two-dimensional code, corresponding to dark elements of the gray scale elements. The side rubber is a diene rubber inclu...