ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,465,079, issued on Nov. 11, was assigned to Imperial Tobacco Ltd. (Bristol, Great Britain).
"Smoking substitute device" was invented by Ian Stuart (Liverpool, Great Britain) and Matthew Elt (Liverpool, Great Britain).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Disclosed is a smoking substitute device comprising a body, a heating element projecting from an end of the body, a cap for engagement with the end of the body, the cap defining a cavity for receipt of the heating element when engaged with the body, and a lock configured to selectively prevent disengagement of the cap from the body based on a condition of the heating element."
The patent was fi...