Post-Ban Flavor Vape
Welcome to the future of vaping where responsible adults can enjoy flavor and feel good about it too. Imagine vapor products that deliver flavor and aroma in a safe AND enjoyable manner. This patent is an unlock for capturing the demand for flavored vapor products that regulations outlawing them cannot diminish.
“There are no harmless substances, only harmless ways of using substances.”
— John Doull
PATENT CLAIMS
Problem: Current flavored-vape designs require the flavor to be pre-mixed in a liquid reservoir with the active compound. But flavor and aroma compounds are more delicate and readily degrade at temperatures necessary to atomize the active(s). This can lead to the production of off-flavor and, in some cases, toxic byproducts.
Solution: Decouple the flavor and aroma delivery from the vaporization of the active payload. Protecting the flavor and aroma compounds with elegant device design significantly decreases toxicity—both acute and chronic—without requiring a change to user behavior.
More Depth
Vapor Product Industries have been challenged over the last decade—both globally and in the United States--as increasingly stringent jurisdictional regulation has sought to reconcile public outcry over nicotine vapor products being marketed toward youth. The mandate to protect the youth from substance addiction has unfortunately left witting and responsible adult-users the ability to enjoy flavored vape products.
Outside of the U.S., increased vapor product regulation has focused on product safety. These efforts have led to various lists of permitted and prohibited flavor and aroma substances, which also severely restrict the flavor palette that can be legally deployed.
The inventors of this patent family foresaw the increasingly restrictive formulation environment for vapor products while also recognizing that consumers show a strong preference for flavored vapor products that is unlikely to diminish even if prohibition succeeds.
This patent application solves one of the major hindrances to flavored vapes—toxicology. By physically separating the flavor/aroma from the active-containing vape liquid, this method makes vape safer for users and obviates the regulatory and legal risk that is currently creating an existential threat to vape products of all types.
Value
KEY
Age-Gating
Segregates substances and flavorings meant for adults from easy combination or consumption by minors.
Regulatory Unlock
Opens-up new product avenues for the non-vape vape. Design constraints targeted at built-in safety create new regulatory categories.
Enjoyment
If something can be enjoyed safely, should it be outlawed?
Safety
Decouples flavor and aroma elements from effects-generating substances, each can be aerosolized using conditions that both maintain the integrity of the individual substances thereby avoiding the creation of untoward and sometimes toxic moieties.
Eliminates Flavor Restrictions
Unlocks flavored vapor products by rethinking “vapor” delivery. Almost all jurisdictional flavor restrictions—especially those focused on product safety—depend on products where actives and flavors are physically mixed.
Same User Behavior
Responsible adults are familiar with inhaling bioactive ingredients—this technology leans into that consumer expectation without trying to force change.
Who Should License
U.S. Patent 11,701,479 will help usher in vaping 2.0—that is as responsible as it is enjoyable. The following types of enterprises may relish a spot at the tip of this spear.
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For Vape Brands, this patent offers a unique proposition: create flavorful, inhaled products without running afoul of the new legal and regulatory regime. With flavor and effect payloads separated, previous products can be rescued from the ashbin of history and reincarnated.
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Vapor Device Manufacturers can leverage this technology to expand their product portfolio with products suited for the new dawn of vaping. With new technology that is regulatorily savvy and toxicologically sensitive, the existing demand for flavored products can be reengaged.
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The same design technology that can make enjoying mere flavors safer can also be used to protect sensitive active ingredients for other therapeutic modalities.