US Patent Issued to The North Face Apparel on July 14 for "Rocker footwear" (Taiwanese, French Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 14 -- United States Patent no. 12,677,906, issued on July 14, was assigned to The North Face Apparel Corp. (Wilmington, Del.).

"Rocker footwear" was invented by Benoit Geis (Watwiller, France) and Wu Shengching (Taichung City, Taiwan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A shoe may comprise an upper (5) and a comfort sole (9) attached to an outsole (7), the comfort sole having a radius of curvature at any point of a line from a heel (C) to a toe (D) and interfacing with outsole (7), wherein the lowest point of comfort sole (9) and outsole (7), called the center of mass or balance point of the sole or natural balance point of the shoe, when placed on a substantially horizontal r...