ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 24 -- United States Patent no. 12,558,922, issued on Feb. 24, was assigned to Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd. (Hyogo, Japan).
"Tire" was invented by Hiroshi Kikuchi (Kobe, Japan), Takuya Osawa (Kobe, Japan) and Jo Shimizu (Kobe, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A tire 2 includes a tread 4 and a belt 14 including inner and outer layers 38 and 40. Each end of the outer layer 40 is located axially inward of an end of the inner layer 38. A circumferential narrow groove 48 is formed on each shoulder land portion 46s so as to continuously extend in a circumferential direction. A groove width of the circumferential narrow groove 48 is smaller than that of a shoulder circumf...