ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,668,004, issued on June 30, was assigned to adidas AG (Herzogenaurach, Germany).

"Expanded pellets and method for manufacturing molded components using them" was invented by Christopher Edward Holmes (Herzogenaurach, Germany), Tru Huu Minh Le (Herzogenaurach, Germany), Sabrina Kerling (Herzogenaurach, Germany), Dharan Kirupanantham (Herzogenaurach, Viet Nam), Volker Altstadt (Bayreuth, Germany), Amir Fathi (Bayreuth, Germany), Daniel Raps (Bayreuth, Germany), Clemens Keilholz (Bayreuth, Germany), Thomas Koeppl (Bayreuth, Germany), Paul Smith (Herzogenaurach, Germany), Jan Hill (Herzogenaurach, Germany), Angus Wardlaw (Herzogenaurach, Germany), Daniel Stephen Price (Herzogenaurach, Ger...