US Patent Issued to Philip Morris USA on Dec. 30 for "Method and apparatus for producing pouched tobacco product" (Virginia Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 31 -- United States Patent no. 12,509,268, issued on Dec. 30, was assigned to Philip Morris USA Inc. (Richmond, Va.).

"Method and apparatus for producing pouched tobacco product" was invented by Martin T. Garthaffner (Richmond, Va.) and Barry Smith (Hopewell, Va.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "In a method and apparatus for producing a small pouch with a predetermined amount of particulate material therein, a predetermined amount of the particulate material is portioned from a bulk supply and compacted into a single discrete caplet. The caplet is then deposited into an open hollow pouch closed at one end thereof, and the open end is then closed with the caplet between the...