Stamping out smoking

Some will be cheering the 1st of July as a day of freedom from tobacco smoke in public places, as England joins the rest of the UK with its ban. Others will gnash their teeth at the idea of the nanny state, at losing rights, of interference in others’ lives – and, perhaps, at the thought of withdrawal pains.

I am firmly in the first camp, but would like to make a modest contribution to the second camp by discussing some devices which aid those wishing to give up the weed.

Devices which aid those wishing to quit smoking date back to 1944 at least (US 2415911, “Time controlled container”), but the rush in patenting them began with the 1960s. There are now hundreds of such patents.

Many inventions consisted of boxes that in some way restricted the supply of cigarettes. Relevant ECLA classes, which can be used on the free Esp@cenet® database at http://ep.espacenet.com, are A24F15/00B, for cigarette boxes with means for limiting the frequency of smoking, and A24F15/14, cigarette boxes that release a single cigarette. Surprisingly, perhaps, many are also in A24F47/00B, which is for simulated smoking devices. These include the use of scents in cigarettes.

There are also nicotine patches, attributed according to which source you read to either US 4822617 or US 4920989. As chewing gum seems to be socially acceptable nowadays, and is easier than getting a patch out and slapping it on your skin, Nicorette® chewing gum (by Pfizer, with the product recently taken over by Johnson & Johnson) or Niquitin® (SmithKline Beecham) are perhaps more convenient products.

With such a wealth of inventions to choose from, it was perhaps inevitable that one that supplies a little light relief – no pun intended – should be my Patent of the Month. This is WO2004079686 by two private inventors, both called Schaffner, from Florida.

It is, perhaps, based on the same concept as the cigarette packs that from time to time vary their compulsory messages of ill health. The patent specification begins by discussing US.5228 848 which is for a cigarette lighter “with an anti-smoking message stored on an analog storage chip capable of emitting a short verbal message”. Only one message was provided, which could be replaced by a new message.  

The Schaffners suggested that there were two drawbacks to this approach. First, it was a relatively expensive item. Second, and more importantly, the anti-smoking message was not delivered at the “critical moment”. The message was only uttered when the smoker was already lighting up, by which time few would have the will power to stub the cigarette out.  

“What is needed, then”, the inventors went on, “is a system for sequentially delivering multiple anti-smoking messages, one at a time, so that the user does not become jaded by hearing the same message and thus does not stop listening to it. A need also exists for a system that delivers all anti-smoking message at the moment of greatest psychological impact - the moment before a fully committed decision to smoke has been made, i.e., before a cigarette has been retrieved from a pack and placed between the lips.”

The act of opening the container in an illuminated environment sets off a circuit and hence triggers the message. In a second version, a normally open switch in the electrical circuit is closed when the lid is removed from the container. This activates the circuit independently of lighting conditions. Useful, perhaps, as the harassed smoker may try removing cigarettes in a darkened room.  

So, have the Schaffners done their homework on the prior art to see if the invention was new ? Perhaps not, as the search report at the end of this application cites two earlier patents as being of direct relevance. One is US 4620555, and here is its rather attractive main drawing.

 


It is one of the many inventions where you set a time interval during which the container stays locked. A “visual signal” indicates when the time interval us up. Any attempts to open the container in an unauthorised manner provokes an “embarrassing alarm” – and a counter adds up the number of such attempts.

The second one, US 5992629, and by General Mills, is for a plastic pack of six yogurts where tearing off the lid of one may set off a message stating that you have won a prize. This, the patent proudly states, is a “major advancement in the field of promotional devices”. It dates from 1997, but I have yet to see such an idea being used in British supermarkets.