{"id":437939,"date":"2026-09-16T18:04:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T18:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/437939\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T18:04:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T18:04:26","slug":"urban-air-founders-slide-designs-among-new-patents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/437939\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban Air Founder\u2019s Slide Designs Among New Patents"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"slides\"<\/p>\n

Unleashed Brands founder and CEO Michael Browning Jr. received a patent for the design of a tube slide the week of Aug. 25. [Illustration: Sources, USPTO Patent No. US0D1144710S; DI Studio]<\/p>\n

Unleashed Brands founder and CEO Michael Browning Jr. received patents for the design of two slides in use at the Bedford-based company\u2019s Urban Air Adventure Parks. The awards came the week of Aug. 25, a week in which North Texas ranked No. 8 among 250 metro areas for patent production.<\/p>\n

The patents cover the design of a tube slide and a flat racer slide. In July 2024, Urban Air unveiled a collection of Adventure Slides<\/a> it planned to add to the trampolines, rope courses and other activities at its sites nationwide. At the time, it described the designs for the Surf, Scoop, Racer, Launch and Tube slides as patent-pending.<\/p>\n

Browning founded Urban Air in Southlake in 2011 and began franchising the concept by 2014. He launched Unleashed Brands in 2021, expanding on the ideas of family entertainment and youth enrichment. Today, Unleashed\u2019s portfolio includes Urban Air, Sylvan Learning, The Little Gym, Water Wings Swim School, Premier Martial Arts, Snapology and Class 101.<\/p>\n

More North Texas inventions<\/p>\n

Other North Texas companies with notable patents the week of Aug. 25 include:<\/p>\n

Texas Instruments Inc. (Dallas) once again led the region by volume with 18 patents. These include a secure convolutional neural network accelerator, an embedded pattern generator, a low-forward-voltage passive full-bridge rectifier and a hybrid addressing method for imaging and vision data.<\/p>\n

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc. (Plano) received 15 patents. The grants covered a personalized adaptive cruise control system that learns a driver\u2019s preferred following gap, a bull bar drop-down structure designed to reduce collision damage, a bicycle saddle system built with spring-based vibration isolation and a method for gamifying the driving environment based on a vehicle occupant\u2019s emotional state.<\/p>\n

Textron Innovations Inc. received six patents naming inventors based primarily in Fort Worth. The grants included a system that can jettison a battery pack from an aircraft during thermal runaway, malfunction or an impending crash; a heliport docking system; and a planetary gearbox system.<\/p>\n

Emerson Process Management Regulator Technologies Inc. (McKinney) received two patents tied to flame arresters, which are devices used to prevent flames from propagating through industrial gas piping.<\/p>\n

Mary Kay Inc. (Addison) received two patents for plant-based skin care formulations. The first covers a topical composition built around magnolia bark extract, grape extract, sunflower seed oil, tocopherol and glycerin. The second covers a method of treating skin conditions using an extract of an African mahogany tree called Khaya senegalensis.<\/p>\n

Patent information is provided by Joe Chiarella, founder of patent analytics company\u00a0Patent Index<\/a>\u00a0and publisher of\u00a0The Inventiveness Index.\u00a0For additional details on the patents granted below, search the\u00a0USPTO Patent Full-Text and Image Database<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\tR E A D\u00a0\u00a0 N E X T\t<\/p>\n

\t\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

The awards program spotlights visionaries, early adopters and trailblazers who are propelling innovation and shaping the future of North Texas tech.<\/p>\n

\t\"Apply<\/a><\/p>\n

You’ll find deadlines coming up for a new accelerator program; and many more opportunities.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dallas-Fort Worth ranked No. 8 for patent activity out of 250 metros for the week of July 14 with a total of 177 patents granted.<\/p>\n

\t\"radio<\/a><\/p>\n

Dallas-Fort Worth logged 174 patents the week of Aug. 18, with McKinney\u2019s Traxxas L.P. anchoring the region\u2019s design output through five new grants and the three most prolific inventors in DFW.<\/p>\n

\t\"figure<\/a><\/p>\n

Dallas-Fort Worth ranked No. 9 among 250 U.S. metros in patent production for the week of Aug. 11, with 135 patents granted to inventors and companies across the region.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dallas-Fort Worth ranked No. 10 for patent activity out of 250 metros for the week of July 21 with a total of 109 patents granted.<\/p>\n

\t\"air<\/a><\/p>\n

TxDOT\u2019s Project Nexus aims to bring air taxi service to Dallas-Fort Worth and the rest of the Texas Triangle by 2029.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Leaders from TRA, IBM, ORCA Computing and IonQ will gather in Dallas for an interactive discussion on the business applications of quantum technologies.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The deal pairs EagleNXT\u2019s fixed-wing surveillance drones with the startup\u2019s low-cost quadcopter platforms. CEO Bill Irby tells Dallas Innovates the company plans to grow its Allen workforce roughly tenfold as it ramps up production across its product lines.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

By combining Flytrex\u2019s drone fleet with Nash\u2019s orchestration system, the companies can route customer orders to the fastest, most reliable way to fill them. Drones take the lead for most orders, and Nash\u2019s on-demand couriers carry the rest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unleashed Brands founder and CEO Michael Browning Jr. received a patent for the design of a tube slide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9031,102,104,103,151755,63508,151756,59942,13263,141655,151757,26445,1207,151758],"class_list":["post-437939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-bedford","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-emerson-process-management","tag-mary-kay","tag-michael-browning-jr","tag-patents","tag-texas-instruments","tag-textron-innovations","tag-toyota-motor-engineering","tag-unleashed-brands","tag-urban-air","tag-uspto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}