Patent 7618332 was granted and assigned to Bridgestone on November, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The present invention provides a golf ball having an outer surface with recessed and/or raised features thereon and having markings shaped as letters or figures formed on the outer surface. The markings are depressions of a substantially uniform depth from the outer surface and are characterized by (1) or (2) below:(1) letting S be the number of the depressions of a substantially uniform depth from the outer surface and N be the total number of dimples on the outer surface, the ratio S/N×100 is 100% or less;(2) the markings are circular or elliptical, or are polygonal.The aerodynamic performance of the golf ball is improved by arranging the depressions of substantially uniform depth evenly on the surface of the ball.