US Patent Issued to British American Tobacco, TOBACCO RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE on May 20 for "Relating to smoking article assembly" (British, South African Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. RE50,435, issued on May 20, was assigned to British American Tobacco Ltd. (London) and TOBACCO RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE (Pty.) Ltd. (Stellenbosch, South Africa).

"Relating to smoking article assembly" was invented by Andrew Jonathan Bray (London) and Gerhard Le Roux (Stellenbosch, South Africa).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A modular apparatus for smoking article assembly comprises a plurality of modules and a plurality of respective interface units, and a controller to control said plurality of modules via said interface units. The modular apparatus is configured to cause received rods of smokable material to undergo a first sequ...