Patents by Inventor Michael Patrick Parker

Michael Patrick Parker has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 6826889
    Abstract: A rigid of smoking articles is made to have improved shelf life and to be resealable. A barrier material is sealed around the rigid pack. The rigid pack has a potential or actual access aperture extending from a top face into a major face. The barrier material has a line of severance or weakening defining a flap, which is in register with the potential or actual access aperture. Over the flap is a layer which overlaps it on each severable side with a portion having permanently-tacky adhesive. A non-adhered pull tab is preferably provided on the layer. To open the pack the user lifts the flap and if necessary the access aperture. After removal of a smoking article the gap in the barrier layer is reclosed and released by the repositioning of the adhesive layer, carrying with it the flap of barrier material. A machine for assembling the pack is also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2002
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2004
    Assignee: British American Tobacco Limited
    Inventor: Michael Patrick Parker
  • Publication number: 20030047470
    Abstract: A rigid pack of smoking articles is made to have improved shelf life and to be resealable. A barrier material is sealed around the rigid pack. The rigid pack has a potential or actual access aperture extending from a top face into a major face. The barrier material has a line of severance or weakening defining a flap, which is in register with the potential or actual access aperture. Over the flap is a layer which overlaps it on each severable side with a portion having permanently-tacky adhesive. A non-adhered pull tab is preferably provided on the layer. To open the pack the user lifts the flap and if necessary the access aperture. After removal of a smoking article the gap in the barrier layer is reclosed and released by the repositioning of the adhesive layer, carrying with it the flap of barrier material. A machine for assembling the pack is also disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 29, 2002
    Publication date: March 13, 2003
    Applicant: British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited
    Inventor: Michael Patrick Parker
  • Patent number: 6505735
    Abstract: A label (7) for resealing an enclosure of a cigarette pack is provided with a pull tab (10) defined by a cut (16) through one layer (14) of a two-layer structure (14, 15), the tab surface (19) being non-adhesive but at least part of the corresponding surface of the major portion of the label being permanently tacky (18).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2003
    Assignee: British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited
    Inventor: Michael Patrick Parker
  • Patent number: 6478149
    Abstract: A rigid pack of smoking articles is made to have improved shelf life and to be resealable. A barrier material is sealed around the rigid pack. The rigid pack has a potential or actual access aperture extending from a top face into a major face. The barrier material has a line of severance or weakening defining a flap, which is in register with the potential or actual access aperture. Over the flap is a layer which overlaps it on each severable side with a portion having permanently-tacky adhesive. A non-adhered pull tab is preferably provided on the layer. To open the pack the user lifts the flap and if necessary the access aperture. After removal of a smoking article the gap in the barrier layer is reclosed and resealed by the repositioning of the adhesive layer, carrying with it the flap of barrier material. A machine for assembling the pack is also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2000
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2002
    Assignee: British American Tobacco (Investments) Ltd.
    Inventor: Michael Patrick Parker
  • Patent number: 6237760
    Abstract: A pack for cigarettes and like smoking articles has a frame (101) outside the charge of cigarettes but inside a flexible wrap, which is preferably a sealed enclosure of a barrier material such as a metal/plastic laminate, or metallized foil. The inner frame which is not rigid since its side (104) and end (108) flaps are free except where attached to a major panel (102) acts to collate and protect the charge of cigarettes and to allow heat-sealing or other sealing pressure to be exerted more efficiently than would otherwise be possible.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 1999
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2001
    Assignee: British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited
    Inventors: Michael Patrick Parker, David John Bates
  • Patent number: 6164444
    Abstract: A pack (1) for smoking articles such as cigarettes has a sealed enclosure of barrier material, with a resealable access aperture to the enclosure. A cover (7) over that aperture has on all its openable edges a permanently tacky surface overlapping over the barrier material there. The cover has a non-adhesive tab (10) to assist opening. An inner frame provides support to the barrier material adjacent to the aperture, allowing the adhesive cover to be pressed firmly against the barrier layer to aid resealing. The pack may be provided with or without an outer carton. If an outer carton is included, the carton may be of a generally rigid card material, and may have a flip-top configuration, may be a Laube box, or may have a shell-and-slide configuration.An inner frame provides support to the barrier material adjacent to the aperture, allowing the adhesive cover to be pressed firmly against the barrier layer to aid resealing. The pack may be provided with or without an outer carton.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2000
    Assignee: British American Tobacco Investments Ltd.
    Inventors: Andrew Jonathan Bray, Michael Patrick Parker, John Roger Sampson, Adrian Roy Stewart-Cox
  • Patent number: 6000539
    Abstract: Packaging for smoking articles such as cigarettes in a rigid, hinged-lidded carton includes a sealed barrier layer enclosure within the carton and a line of separation aligned with a lid-end edge of an inner frame of the carton so that the edge acts as a guide in shearing the barrier layer when opening the enclosure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 14, 1999
    Assignee: Rothmans International Services Limited
    Inventors: Adrian Roy Stewart-Cox, Theodore Roland Philip Thomas, John Roger Sampson, Michael Patrick Parker
  • Patent number: 5983605
    Abstract: A machine and method for packaging smoking articles provides an essentially hermetic enclosure of a barrier material around a charge of such articles in an open (incomplete) frame, by driving on the articles themselves to push them through a temporary wall of the barrier material with the previous imposition on them of the open frame at a framing station. Preferably the driving is by means of an indexing conveyor which is stationary immediately before the collection of the charge from a hopper, during the imposition of the frame and immediately before pushing the frame and charge through the temporary wall.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 1998
    Date of Patent: November 16, 1999
    Assignee: Rothmans International Services
    Inventors: Michael Patrick Parker, Andrew Bray, Jonathan Charles Laughton