ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,283,148, issued on April 22, was assigned to RAI STRATEGIC HOLDINGS INC. (Winston-Salem, N.C.).

"Functional control and age verification of electronic devices through visual communication" was invented by Sawyer Hubbard (Winston-Salem, N.C.), Charles A. Leyes (Winston-Salem, N.C.), Vince Ireland (Winston-Salem, N.C.), Sean Daugherty (Winston-Salem, N.C.), Sean Lukan (Winston-Salem, N.C.) and Jared Aller (Winston-Salem, N.C.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An aerosol delivery or electronic nicotine delivery systems ("ENDS") device may include smoking articles that produce aerosol. The device may operate upon authentication. The authenticati...