US Patent Issued to NIKE on Nov. 18 for "Footwear uppers including bladders, articles of footwear including bladders in the upper, and methods of forming such uppers and/or articles of footwear" (Oregon Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,471,676, issued on Nov. 18, was assigned to NIKE Inc. (Beaverton, Ore.).

"Footwear uppers including bladders, articles of footwear including bladders in the upper, and methods of forming such uppers and/or articles of footwear" was invented by Patrick R. Case (Portland, Ore.), Yoon Jeong Choi (Portland, Ore.), John S. MacGilbert (Tigard, Ore.), James Molyneux (Portland, Ore.), Colin Runkle (Portland, Ore.) and Bryan K. Youngs (Beaverton, Ore.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Footwear upper components include a fabric element and a bladder component that defines a sealed interior chamber. The bladder component includes: (a) a first major su...