Patent ID: 8573273

Claim:
A pneumatic tire provided with an indication portion formed by molding a visually defined area comprising a plurality of letters or figures aligned in a sequence on an outer surface of a side wall of the pneumatic tire, the pneumatic tire comprising at least three interconnected recesses provided on the surface of each of said plurality of letters or figures of said indication portion, the recesses each extending in a predetermined extending direction and aligned side by side with each other in an alignment direction crossing the extending direction, wherein: the interconnected recesses all have similar cross-sectional configurations and dimensions to generate a repeating visual pattern on the indication portion, one end side and the other end side of each recess in its width direction are each respectively formed by a curved surface portion of which a center of curvature is disposed outside of the tire, such that a gradation of brightness of reflected light occurs on the curved surface portion of the recess and the gradation of brightness of each recess varies according to a viewing direction or a light direction; a ridge line is formed at a raised portion where curved surfaces of two mutually adjacent recesses intersect, wherein brightness of the surface of the raised portion varies across the ridge line, each recess has the depth of 0.1 mm or more and the width of 4 mm or more, and the width of each recess is five times larger or more of the depth, each of the curved surface portions of each recess is formed in an arcuate shape as viewed in cross section, with a depth of the curved surface portion varying in a radial direction of the tire, and radii of curvature of the curved surfaces of the one end side in the width direction and the other end side in the width direction of said each recess are 13 times larger or more than the depth of the recess in which the curved surfaces are provided.