US 2,006,136,173 · Filed 2004-12-17
Nike's GPS Patent That Turned Every Runner Into a Data Scientist
Nike patented a system that uses GPS and multiple sensors to track how athletes perform during workouts and races. It gives runners real-time feedback while they're moving, logs everything for later analysis, and helps coaches figure out how to help them run faster next time.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a multi-sensor athletic monitoring system that collects GPS location data, combines it with other sensor information, and delivers performance metrics to athletes during an event in real time. What's protected here is the integration of GPS positioning with other monitoring technologies to provide route guidance, goal tracking, and live feedback to help athletes adjust their effort during competition.
Why it matters
This patent established a foundational approach to connected athletic performance monitoring—the idea that real-time data from multiple sensors could guide athletes mid-event and provide coaches with detailed post-event analysis. By locking down GPS-integrated monitoring for sports, Nike created a category that became central to modern fitness wearables and running apps, influencing how athletes train and measure improvement.
Real-world use
When you use a running app that shows your pace, distance, and route on a map during a race or training run, you're using technology built on this patent framework—GPS feeding data that gets processed and displayed live to help you stay on pace.
Original USPTO abstract
Athletic performance monitoring systems and methods, many of which utilize, in some manner, global positioning satellite (“GPS”) data, provide data and information to athletes and/or to equipment used by athletes during an athletic event. Such systems and methods may provide route information to athletes and/or their trainers, e.g., for pre-event planning, goal setting, and calibration purposes. Such systems and methods optionally may provide real time information to the athlete while the event takes place, e.g., to assist in reaching the pre-set goals. Additionally, data and information collected by such systems and methods may assist in post-event analysis for athletes and their trainers, e.g., to evaluate past performances and to assist in improving future performances.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 2,006,136,173
- Filing date
- 2004-12-17
- Grant date
- Application — not yet granted
- Assignee
- Nike, Inc.
- Inventor(s)
- CASE CHARLES W.JR., MARTIN JASON P.
- CPC class
- A63B24/0062
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