ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,396,486, issued on Aug. 26, was assigned to Imperial Tobacco Ltd. (Bristol, Great Britain).
"Smoking substitute apparatus with electrical contacts" was invented by Benjamin Illidge (Liverpool, Great Britain), Benjamin Astbury (Liverpool, Great Britain), Nikhil Aggarwal (Liverpool, Great Britain) and Andrew Duckworth (Liverpool, Great Britain).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A smoking substitute apparatus comprises: a housing having a longitudinal axis; an air outlet provided at a first end of the housing; an air inlet provided at a second end of the housing opposite to the first end; an air flow channel extending through the housing betwee...