It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in this week’s North Texas patent grants.

The Irving-based pop culture merchandiser Bioworld Merchandising received a patent for the design of a novelty cup shaped like Santa Claus’ hat. It was one of 135 patents issued the week of Oct. 6 with ties to North Texas.

The design, which the patent application describes as a “Santa hat sipper,” includes an enclosed top and straw. Jordan Jones of Austin was the sole inventor on the patent. The application, filed Aug. 30, 2023, took 1,133 days to issue.

Tradition of innovation

Bioworld got its start in 2000 as a headwear company and has since grown into a global consumer products business. It develops its own products and also works with iconic brands, creators and entertainment properties to expand into a wide range of consumer product categories.

For example, its Heroes & Villains brand partnered with Marvel earlier this month to promote a collection of clothing and accessories tied to the upcoming film Avengers: Doomsday. Bioworld built a booth for New York Comic Con designed as a marketplace in Latveria, Doctor Doom’s fictional homeland.

In December 2025, Bioworld expanded its product innovation strategy even further. It launched Bioworld Ventures, a corporate venture fund focused on early-stage consumer brands in need of capital and operational expertise.

Other patents the week of Oct. 6

North Texas ranked No. 9 among 250 U.S. metropolitan areas for patent activity the week of Oct. 6. Eighteen patents that week had both a local inventor and assignee. Another 82 had only local inventors, and 35 were assigned to local companies or other entities.

Texas Instruments (Dallas) was the most prolific with 15 patents. Plano’s Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America had the second most patents for the week, with six.

Other notable awards include:

Civilized Power (Dallas) received a patent for an apparatus that generates hydrogen for use in a hydrogen-powered vehicle. It took 1,561 days to be approved.

Firehawk Aerospace (Addison) received a patent related to its hybrid rocket engine fuel grains. The sole inventor is company co-founder Ronald D. Jones of Denton. The award came just a few weeks before the company, now known as Firehawk Defense, announced the close of its Series D funding round.

Nvidia (Santa Clara, California) received a patent related to a data center cooling system that uses cooling loops. Pardeep Shahi of Arlington was one of four inventors.

Verily Health (Dallas) had three patents for the week, including one for a virtual reality headset system that can perform color vision tests. Six inventors — five in California and one in Chicago — worked on the system.

Zoom Communications (San Jose, California) received a patent for integrated network testing for virtual conferencing. Russell Charles Hearn of Dallas was a co-inventor.

Patent information is provided by Joe Chiarella, founder of patent analytics company Patent Index and publisher of The Inventiveness Index. For additional details on the patents granted below, search the USPTO Patent Full-Text and Image Database.