US Patent Issued to Altria Client Services on May 13 for "Tobacco beads" (Virginia Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,295,403, issued on May 13, was assigned to Altria Client Services LLC (Richmond, Va.).

"Tobacco beads" was invented by Andrew Nathan Carroll (Chester, Va.) and Yan Helen Sun (Midlothian, Va.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A smokeless tobacco product described herein includes at least one tobacco bead. Tobacco beads described herein include a core and at least one tobacco-containing layer surrounding the core. Each tobacco-containing layer can include less than 10 weight percent tobacco. Tobacco bead described herein can have a diameter of at least 1 millimeters. Tobacco bead described herein can have at least 5 mg tobacco. Tobacco bead d...