Interesting Patents

[Farid]

I thought a thread to discuss different patents that have been filed could stimulate some interesting discussion.

If you go to https://patents.google.com/ you can search for all kinds of patents, for existing products and for products that are in development or have been shelved.

I'm sure this one has probably been posted before, but I thought it was interesting to see that it's owned by juul. It's also convection and pretty tiny.

US20180000160A1 - On-demand, portable convection vaporizer - Google Patents

On-demand, hand-held vaporizer that operates primarily by convection. The vaporizer is configured to permit very rapid (e.g., within a few seconds) heating of air drawn through an oven chamber to a predetermined or selectable vaporizing temperature to vaporize a material (e.g., loose leaf plant...

patents.google.com

There were a few others I found interesting:

US20130014755A1 - Vaporization device - Google Patents

An apparatus is provided for vaporizing a source of vaporizable substance for delivering an aerosol. The vaporizing apparatus comprises a housing defining a first combustion chamber, a second vaporizing chamber for receiving the vaporizable substance, and a transverse wall spanning the interior...

patents.google.com

This one looks just like a mighty's heating element but with a unique mouthpiece design

US8739786B2 - Portable hand-held vaporizer heating assembly - Google Patents

A portable hand-held vaporizer assembly that has a body shaped to fit substantially within a standard-sized clothing pocket with the body including an airflow chamber defining an airflow passage and having a proximal end and a distal end, opposite to the proximal end, defining a distal opening...

patents.google.com

You can see from the URL the type of search terms I was using. Searching by manufacturer or by specific features works well.

 

[Farid]

Another rabbit hole is to look at "cited by" for various patents to see who's been iterating on similar ideas. For instance, the second patent I listed above is cited by tobacco giant Phillip Morris in this patent:

US20160227839A1 - Aerosol-generating system for generating nicotine salt particles - Google Patents

An aerosol-generating system is provided, including a nicotine source; a volatile delivery enhancing compound source downstream of the nicotine source and including an acid; heating means for heating the nicotine source; and a physically separate heat transfer barrier between the nicotine source...

patents.google.com

Obviously it's a different design, being battery powered, and designed for liquids, versus flame powered and for dry herb. But the similar use of a piercing heat element and the general cigarette shape is the same.

What I find interesting is that the first patent is an abandoned patent by two relatively unknown individuals, yet it is being cited by one of the biggest corporations in the industry.
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Then in "similar documents" I found a patent owned by Juul Labs for a very interesting dry herb vape. This one has both butane powered and electric powered variations. It's also very recent...

US11478021B2 - Systems and methods for aerosolizing a vaporizable material - Google Patents

A smoking device for generating and releasing smoking vapor free from contamination into the mouth of a user comprising a mouthpiece for providing vapor for inhalation to a user including a tubular casing containing a heater for heating a smoking substance at a substantially constant low...

patents.google.com

This one is really interesting because it includes some form of temperature regulation via a bimetalic valve - when the temperature gets to vaping temp the butane output is reduced. It also has a visual indicator telling the user when the vape is up to temperature and ready to hit.

 

[flipper_gv]

First one would be a great Pax Pro or something. I'd consider one.

 

[ScyOne]

I'm sure this one has probably been posted before, but I thought it was interesting to see that it's owned by juul. It's also convection and pretty tiny.

"When Juul Labs and Pax Labs split from one company into two in 2017, they seemed destined to reach new heights. Juul would conquer the e-cigarette industry. Pax would dominate the marijuana vaping business."

Maybe filed before they split or something. matches around the time the patent was filed.

 

[Farid]

Yeah, I swear when I first saw it a few years ago it was under PAX, but maybe it was just a very similar device.

What's really interesting to me is how many abandoned patents there are that are actually really unique and interesting ideas. It makes sense, since some of the most innovative designs fail on the first go around, crippling the owners (Haze square, grasshopper to name a couple)

Lately I've also been digging into the Tobacco industry's foray into "heat not burn" which is essentially dry herb vaporization. The history is super interesting because it goes all the way back to the 80s with devices like RJR's "Premier" (see the TV movie "Barbarian's at the Gate" for a great story on that fiasco)

What's funny to me is how PMI has invested a ton in the new IQOS being successful. And so far they have been overseas, yet tobacco vaping with regular dry herb vapes has never been super popular. Digging into the trail of patents you can see how they've evolved those designs over the years into what that product is today.

I'm curious to learn why they chose to go with modifying the tobacco so much to match the vaporizers, vs modifying the vaporizer to work well with regular tobacco. Maybe because regular tobacco just doesn't vape that well? Or more likely that it was just to keep the vaped material proprietary...

 

[ScyOne]

Yeah, I swear when I first saw it a few years ago it was under PAX, but maybe it was just a very similar device.

It should be under PAX, PAX came before the Juul, I don't really want to look into it cause no point though.