Smoking substitute device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12453382-B2
Application number	US-202418733550-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 4, 2024
Priority date	Feb 26, 2018
Publication date	Oct 28, 2025
Grant date	Oct 28, 2025

Abstract

A system for managing a smoking substitute device is described. The system comprises a smoking substitute device; and a mobile device configured to have a wireless connection with the smoking substitute device; wherein the system is configured to activate a geographic lock function on the smoking substitute device thereby disabling the smoking substitute device if the smoking substitute device and/or the mobile device is determined to have a geographical location that is within one or more predetermined geographical areas.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system for managing a smoking substitute device, the system comprising:
a smoking substitute device; and
a mobile device configured to have a wireless connection with the smoking substitute device;
wherein the system is configured to activate a geographic lock function on the smoking substitute device thereby disabling the smoking substitute device if the smoking substitute device and/or the mobile device is determined to have a geographical location that is within one or more predetermined geographical areas; and
wherein the smoking substitute device and/or the mobile device is configured to, after the smoking substitute device has been disabled, enable the smoking substitute device in response to a predetermined action being performed by a user using the smoking substitute device and/or the mobile device so as to show that the user is authorized to use the smoking substitute device.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more predetermined geographical areas are set by the user of the mobile device.

3. The system according to claim 2 , wherein the one or more predetermined geographical areas are set by the user of the mobile device via an application installed on the mobile device.

4. The system according to claim 3 , wherein the one or more predetermined geographical areas are set by the user of the mobile device by the user using a map interface of the application to:
select one or more first geographical areas in which the smoking substitute device should be disabled; and/or
select one or more second geographical areas in which the smoking substitute device should not be disabled.

5. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more predetermined geographical areas include a particular geographical area within a predetermined distance of a home location.

6. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the mobile device is configured to send a disable signal to the smoking substitute device so as to activate the geographic lock function on the smoking substitute device if the mobile device is determined to have the geographical location that is within the one or more predetermined geographical areas.

7. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the smoking substitute device is configured to activate the geographic lock function on the smoking substitute device if the smoking substitute device is determined to have the geographical location that is within the one or more predetermined geographical areas, even if the smoking substitute device does not have the wireless connection to the mobile device.

8. A system for managing a smoking substitute device, the system comprising:
a smoking substitute device; and
a mobile device configured to have a wireless connection with the smoking substitute device;
wherein the system is configured to activate a geographic lock function on the smoking substitute device thereby disabling the smoking substitute device if the smoking substitute device and/or the mobile device is determined to have a geographical location that is within one or more predetermined geographical areas; and
wherein the smoking substitute device and/or the mobile device is configured to, after the smoking substitute device has been disabled, enable the smoking substitute device in response to a predetermined action being performed by a user using the smoking substitute device and/or the mobile device so as to show that the user is authorized to use the smoking substitute device, unless the smoking substitute device has been disabled pending successful performance of a further verification process.

9. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the further verification process is an age verification test.

10. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the smoking substitute device is configured to be disabled pending successful performance of the further verification process by setting an indicator on the smoking substitute device to indicate that the smoking substitute device is disabled pending successful performance of the further verification process.

11. The system according to claim 10 , wherein the smoking substitute device is configured to set the indicator when a predetermined criteria relating to usage of the smoking substitute device is met and/or a predetermined length of time has elapsed.

12. The system according to claim 10 , wherein the indicator is not set when the geographic lock function disables the smoking substitute device.

Assignees

• Imperial Tobacco Ltd

Inventors

• Fard Daniel
• Talbot Oliver
• Newns David

Classifications

• A24F40/10

  Devices using liquid inhalable precursors · CPC title

• H04W4/021

  Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences · CPC title

• H04L67/306

  User profiles · CPC title

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• A24F40/49

  Child proofing · CPC title