ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,257,481, issued on March 25, was assigned to ZEpickleball Co. LLC (St. Louis).
"Wind tolerant ball" was invented by Robert J. Franceschelli (St. Louis), John J. Anderson (Alpine, Calif.) and Wouter Remmerie (Antwerp, Belgium).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The ball is a thin-walled hollow sphere that includes an array of apertures with dimples in a pattern that are concentric to the aperture array. Dimples are provided on the exterior surface of the ball between the apertures with the pattern and dimensions of the dimples varying based on proximity to the apertures. Internal protuberances are provided on the interior surface of the hollo...