7-Eleven Expands Patents with New Item-Tracking Technologies

7-Eleven, based in Irving, has strengthened its intellectual property portfolio with the addition of two patents as of the week ending September 29. These patents focus on innovations in inventory tracking and computer vision for item recognition.

One of the newly acquired patents enhances data prediction in systems that monitor the removal of items, with Nicholas E. Evangelopoulos of Denton being the sole inventor. This application took 1,729 days to be granted. The second patent utilizes machine learning to expedite the processing of digital images, with all six inventors located in North Texas. These new patents join a collection that includes at least six others acquired since early August.

During the same week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a total of 123 patents related to North Texas, positioning the region as the 10th most active metro area for patent activity out of 250 in the U.S. Notably, Texas Instruments led with nine patents, including advancements in high-efficiency video coding.