US Patent Issued to British American Tobacco on March 18 for "Methods of treating cut stem tobacco material" (German Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,250,962, issued on March 18, was assigned to British American Tobacco Ltd. (London).

"Methods of treating cut stem tobacco material" was invented by Dietmar Franke (Hamburg, Germany), Frank Plueckhahn (Hamburg, Germany), Matthias Link (Hamburg, Germany), Horst Grzonka (Hamburg, Germany) and Thomas Lindner (Hamburg, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method of treating cut stem tobacco material by expanding the cut stem to provide a first expanded tobacco material having a fill value at least about 10% greater than the fill value of the untreated cut stem tobacco material; intermittently contacting the first expanded tobacco materi...