The R&D Dept.: Local patent roundup for 3.26.25

Heat Diffuser For An Aerosol-generating System
Patent No. 12256469
A heat diffuser for use with an electrically-operated aerosol-generating device is configured to be removably coupled to the aerosol-generating device. The heat diffuser includes a non-combustible porous body for absorbing heat from an electric heating element. The porous body is thermally conductive such that, in use, air drawn through the porous body is heated by the heat absorbed by the porous body. Example embodiments also provide a heated aerosol-generating article and an aerosol-generating system, both comprising the heat diffuser.
Inventor: Michel Thorens (Mouldon, Switzerland)
Assignee: Altria Client Services (Richmond)
March 18, 2025

Integrated Third-party Application Builder Trigger For Message Flow
Patent No. 12255860
A message management platform may receive, from an application operator, a configuration of a message flow. The message flow includes one or more messages associated with trigger conditions. The platform may receive, from a code snippet incorporated in an application of a user computing device, a notification that the user computing device has used the application. The platform may associate a user identifier with the user computing device. The platform may subscribe to, on behalf of the application operator, one or more API notification channels of the application builder platform. The platform may receive an API notification from the application builder platform. The platform may determine that the application builder platform’s user is associated with the user identifier used by the message management platform. The platform may determine that the event described in the payload matches the trigger condition and transmit the first message to the user computing device.
Inventors: Alexand Colin Meyer (Chicago, Ill.); Gerardo Diaz de La Serna Formoso (Mexico City, Mexico); Gideon Danniel VanRiette (Chicago, Ill.); James Quinlan (Richmond); Joy Taylor Kaufman (Durham, N.C.); Kameron Ahler (Colorado, Calif.); Lauren Leia Rouse (Nashville, Tenn.); Vishak Swaminathan Visvanathan (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
Assignee: Stodge Inc (Scottsdale, Ariz.)
March 18, 2025

Interbody Spinal Cage
Patent No. 12251319
An interbody spinal cage when implanted can be manipulated non-invasively to change dimensions conforming to contours of adjacent vertebral bones. The interbody spinal cage includes a flexible shell that encases multiple variable-length rods. Each of the multiple variable-length rods includes telescoping tubes and an actuator for increasing and decreasing the length of the telescoping tubes. Each of the variable-length rods includes a retention member to limit movements of the telescoping tubes, wherein the retention member can be engaged and disengaged. Both the retention member and the actuator can be operated from outside the body in which the interbody spinal cage is implanted.
Inventors: Nazmi Peyman (Richmond); Edmond Zahedi (Burnaby, Canada); Steven Fiore (Richmond)
Assignee: New World Technologies and Data (Glen Allen, Va.)
March 18, 2025

One Click Cancel
Patent No. 12254454
Aspects provided may allow for a user to block charges from an entity without having to contact the entity. After detecting that the user has enrolled in a trial or subscription of an entity offering, the user may be provided with the option to block charges from the entity. Using incoming data, charges from the blocked entity may be identified and prevented from being applied to the user. Further aspects may provide for more discrete charge blocking, such as blocking charges for one activity while allowing other charges for different activities from the same entity to go through, and training an identification model that isolates the entity identifier from the incoming data and matches the entity identifier to known entities.
Inventors: Erik Virbitsky (Washington, D.C.); Keith A. Kates (Richmond); Marisa Lee (Washington, D.C.)
Assignee: Capital One Services (McLean, Va.)
March 18, 2025

Sensor Apparatuses And Systems
Patent No. 12250963
A sensor apparatus may include a conduit structure including an inner surface defining a conduit extending through an interior of the conduit structure, an inlet structure coupled to an end of the conduit structure, and a plurality of sensor devices in hydrodynamic contact with the conduit. The inlet structure may couple with an outlet end of an external tobacco element to hold the outlet end of the external tobacco element in fluid communication with an inlet opening of the conduit structure, such that the conduit structure may receive a generated aerosol from the external tobacco element at the inlet opening, and draw an instance of aerosol through the conduit towards an outlet opening. The instance of aerosol may include at least a portion of the generated aerosol. Each sensor device may generate sensor data indicating a pressure of the instance of aerosol through a separate portion of the conduit.
Inventors: Georgios Karles (Richmond); Jeffery S. Edmiston (Mechanicsville, Va.); William A. Rees (Richmond); David B. Kane (Richmond)
Assignee: Altria Client Services (Richmond)
March 18, 2025

Firearm Magazine Loading System
Patent No. 12253325
An ammunition loading tray is configured to hold one or more ammunition cartridges in a loading position. The ammunition loading tray includes one or more loading compartments; and each loading compartment is configured to hold a corresponding one of the one or more ammunition cartridges in a loading position. Each loading compartment includes a magazine receiving portion configured to support an ammunition magazine from below and allow for less lateral movement of the ammunition magazine in a first direction than lateral movement of the ammunition magazine in a second direction that is perpendicular to the first direction. An ammunition cartridge receiving portion is located within the magazine receiving portion. The ammunition cartridge receiving portion is configured to support the ammunition cartridge from below and limit lateral movement of the ammunition cartridge in the first direction while allowing lateral movement of the ammunition cartridge in the second direction. A perimeter of the magazine receiving portion is larger than a perimeter of the ammunition cartridge receiving portion.
Inventors: Dononvan Phillips (Midlothian, Va.); Leopold Dag Dag Cruz (Midlothian, Va.); Nickolas Corbin (Chesterfield, Va.)
Assignee: Gun-Nutz (Midlothian, Va.)
March 18, 2025

Querying A Telemetry Dataset
Patent No. 12254045
Approaches for querying a telemetry dataset are described. The telemetry dataset may include telemetry data that may have been generated by a plurality of data endpoints of a physical asset within a facility. The querying of the telemetry dataset may be performed by initially using a semantic dataset. In an example, initially, the semantic dataset is queried by executing a first query comprising a query tag to identify a first data endpoint from amongst the plurality of data endpoints. Thereafter, a reference unique identifier which is linked with the first data endpoint is obtained to query the telemetry dataset by executing a subsequent query comprising the reference unique identifier. As a result of execution of the subsequent query, the telemetry data pertaining to the first data endpoint is retrieved.
Inventors: Craig Gemmill (Montpelier, Va.); Radu Siminiceanu (Glen Allen, Va.)
Assignee: Honeywell International (Charlotte, N.C.)
March 18, 2025

Distributed Work Data Management
Patent No. 12253980
A device may receive, from a user device, a transaction request associated with a first entity and identify a distributed ledger associated with the first entity, the distributed ledger including a set of blocks recording work data associated with the first entity. The set of blocks may include: a first subset of blocks including data specifying work performed by the first entity, and a second subset of blocks including data verifying a portion of the work performed by the first entity and specified by the data included in the first subset of blocks. The device may determine that a transaction, associated with the transaction request, is associated with the first subset of blocks and the second subset of blocks. Based on predetermined instructions that correspond to the transaction and the distributed ledger, the device may perform the transaction.
Inventors: Walter Miller (Glen Allen, Va.); Robert Martin (Glen Allen, Va.); Bradley Smith (Mechanicsville, Va.)
Assignee: Capital One Services (McLean, Va.)
March 18, 2025

Method, Device, And System For Disinfection
Patent No. 12239755
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to disinfection and, more particularly, to methods, devices, and systems for disinfection of a space. In one embodiment, the invention provides a disinfecting system comprising: a disinfecting composition; and a device for producing a fog of the disinfecting composition, the fog comprising liquid droplets having diameters between about 0.5 micron and about 20 microns. In some embodiments, the invention includes a dehumidifying device for removing the fog of the disinfecting composition from the space.
Inventors: Emmett Manuel Cunningham (Glen Allen, Va.)
Assignee: Nevoa Life Sciences (Gilbert, Ariz.)
March 18, 2025

Snapshot Transfer For Cloud-based Storage Across Accounts
Patent No. 12244713
In some implementations, a system may receive a first credential associated with a first account and a second credential associated with a second account and may instruct a cloud service, using the first credential, to generate a first snapshot of structured source data associated with the first account. The system may authorize the first account and the second account to use a master encryption key and instruct the cloud service to encrypt the first snapshot using the master encryption key. The system may instruct the cloud service, using the second credential, to copy the first snapshot to a second snapshot associated with the second account and to decrypt the second snapshot into structured target data using the master encryption key. The system may deauthorize the first account and the second account from using the master encryption key and output an indicator of completion to a user device.
Inventors: Steven P. Long (Glen Allen, Va.); Volkan Senkaynak (Wilmington, Del.)
Assignee: Capital One Services (McLean, Va.)
March 18, 2025

Machine Learning For Computer Security Policy Modification
Patent No. 12255928
In some aspects, a computing system may use a machine learning model to determine whether a computer security policy should be modified to reduce the likelihood of a cyber security incident. Through the use of a machine learning model, unsafe combinations of access grants or permissions may be identified and modified to prevent cyber security incidents from occurring. The computing system may input a representation of a computer security policy into a machine learning model, which has been trained on a dataset that includes representations of computer security policies. The computing system may generate output indicating a likelihood that the first computing system will be involved in a cyber security incident. Based on the output satisfying a first threshold, the computing system may generate a recommendation to modify the first computer security policy. The computing system may modify the first computer security policy based on the recommendation.
Inventors: Geeta Shyamala (Herndon, Va.); Lee Adcock (Midlothian, Va.); Vincent Pham (Seattle, Wash.); Nahid Farhady Ghalaty (Fairfax, Va.)
Assignee: Capital One Services (McLean, Va.)
March 18, 2025

Techniques For Excess Resource Utilization
Patent No. 12255832
Techniques to utilize excess resources in a cloud system, such as by enabling an auxiliary resource utilizer to use resources while they are not needed to support primary resource utilizers, are described herein. Some embodiments are directed to identifying and allocating excess capacity of resources in a cloud system to auxiliary resource utilizers based on one or more policies. In various embodiments, excess resources in one or more of the set of resources in the cloud system, or cloud resources, may be determined based on monitoring utilization of the cloud resources by the primary resource utilizers. In many embodiments, an auxiliary resource utilizer that is in compliance with a set of utilization policies may be identified and the excess resources may be allocated to the auxiliary resource utilizer.
Inventors: Eric K. Barnum (Midlothian, Va.); Bryan Pinos (Williamsburg, Va.)
Assignee: Capital One Services (McLean, Va.)
March 18, 2025

Systems And Methods For Secure Remote Identity Verification
Patent No. 12256015
Systems and methods are provided for authenticating an identity of a user requesting a resource or service from an entity. In some embodiments, a system may include at least one processor; and a non-transitory medium containing instructions that cause the system to perform operations. The operations may include receiving credential information associated with the remote user, and receiving, from the server associated with the entity, first hash information. The operations may also include generating second hash information based on information associated with the user, comparing the first hash information with the second hash information, and transmitting an indication based on the comparison to the server associated with the entity.
Inventors: Ryan Fox (Lebanon, Ohio); Jonathan Weimer (Henrico, Va.); Meghnath Sharma (Chantilly, Va.); Charles W. Hall (Manakin-Sabot, Va.)
Assignee: Capital One Services (McLean, Va.)
March 18, 2025

Aerosol-generating Device With Sealed Compartment
Patent No. 12256778
An aerosol-generating device may include a housing defining at least one internal compartment. The housing may be waterproof. The aerosol-generating device may further include a power supply, an electric heater, and/or a haptic feedback device. Each of the power supply, electric heater, and/or haptic feedback device may be positioned within one or more of the at least one internal compartment.
Inventors: Michel Bessant (Carouge, Switzerland); Laurent Golay (La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland); Omer Kesici (Renens, Switzerland); Nikolaus Martin Ernest Wilhelm Ricketts (Geneva, Switzerland); Laurent Seydoux (Gillarens, Switzerland); Alain Tabasso (Essertines-sur-Yverdon, Switzerland)
Assignee: Altria Client Services (Richmond)
March 25, 2025

Apparatuses And Systems For Preparing A Meat Product
Patent No. 12256761
The apparatuses described herein relate to preparation of a meat product. Apparatuses, systems comprising the apparatuses, and methods of making and use the systems and apparatuses are described herein. These are useful for controlling one or more of growth on and separation of a meat product from an enclosed substrate. The apparatuses and systems are configured to receive fluid and grow the meat product and/or separate the meat product from the substrate in a scalable manner.
Inventors: Matthew Leung (Richmond); Michelle Warner (Redwood City, Calif.); Ryan Edward Vanderpol (Oakland, Calif.); Thomas Pei-Ja Hsiu (Palo Alto, Calif.); Kathleen Carswell (San Francisco, Calif.)
Assignee: Upside Foods (Berkeley, Calif.)
March 25, 2025

Methods And Systems For Searching Data Exchanges That Comprise Information On Assets With Non-homogenous Functionality And Non- Standardized Data Descriptions
Patent No. 12259888
Methods and systems searching data exchanges and assets with non-homogenous functionality and non-standardized data descriptions using credentials corresponding to users. The method includes receiving, from a user, a request to access a data exchange, retrieving a user profile for the user, wherein the user profile provides a credential for the user, and receiving a search string. The method includes determining a first search input for searching the data exchange based on the search string and the credential, performing, a first comparison of a first search input portion to respective first set of attributes for the plurality of asset types, and performing a second comparison of a second search input portion to respective second set of attributes for the plurality of asset types. The method includes generating for display a search result for the search string based on the first comparison and the second comparison.
Inventors: Singaram Subramanian (Dublin, Calif.); Sumod Soman (San Ramon, Calif.); Adwait Suresh Talathi (Kensington, Calif.); Jonathan Rodriguez (Richmond); Sheel Khanna (Glen Allen, Va.); Snehal Patil (San Ramon, Calif.); Heena Patel (Fremont, Calif.); Naveen Chandran (San Ramon, Calif.); John Prout (Castro Valley, Calif.); Tribhuvan Kambham (Glen Allen, Va.)
Assignee: Capital One Services (McLean, Va.)
March 25, 2025

Electronic Vaping Device
Patent No. 12257384
A cartridge of an electronic vaping device includes a housing extending in a longitudinal direction. The housing includes a sidewall, a transverse wall at the first end of the sidewall, and an inner tube integrally formed with the housing. The sidewall is generally cylindrical and a first end and a second end. The transverse wall includes at least one outlet therein. The inner tube extends in the longitudinal direction. The inner tube is concentrically positioned with respect to the sidewall. The inner tube communicates with the at least one outlet. The cartridge also includes a reservoir between the sidewall and the inner tube. The reservoir is configured to contain a pre-vapor formulation.
Inventors: Travis Martin Garthaffner (Midlothian, Va.); Peter J. Lipowicz (Midlothian, Va.)
Assignee: Altria Client Services (Richmond)
March 25, 2025

Flexible Aerosol-generating Devices
Patent No. 12256779
An aerosol-generating device may include a housing having flexible portion along its length. The flexible portion is configured to transition between a relaxed or unloaded configuration and a flexed or deflected configuration. A flexible heating element and mouthpiece may also be disposed in the housing. When the housing is in a relaxed or unloaded configuration, the flexible heating element and the mouthpiece are at least partially longitudinally aligned with the flexible portion of the housing.
Inventors: Rui Nuno Batista (Morges, Switzerland); Stephane Antony Hedarchet (Pully, Switzerland)
Assignee: Altria Client Services (Richmond)
March 25, 2025

Article Carrier And Blank Therefore
Patent No. 12258190
Aspects of the disclosure relate to a top engaging article carrier (90) for packaging one or more articles (B) and a blank (10, 110, 210, 310, 410, 510) for forming the carrier. The top-engaging article carrier comprises an engaging panel having an upper panel (12A) and a lower panel (12B) disposed in face to face contacting relationship with each other. The article carrier comprises a top engaging device (RT) comprising a first article receiving opening (A1) in the lower panel and a second article receiving opening (A2) in the upper panel. The first article receiving opening comprises a first diameter (d1). The second article receiving opening comprises a second diameter (d2). The first diameter is greater than the second diameter. The article comprises: an upper end, having an end diameter (Cd); a main body, having a body diameter (Bd); and a neck disposed therebetween and having a neck diameter (Nd). The first diameter is equal to or greater than the end diameter (d1≥Cd).
Inventors: Bradford J. Walling (Chesterfield, Va.); Matthew E. Zacherle (Moseley, Va.)
Assignee: WestRock Packaging Systems (Atlanta, Ga.)
March 25, 2025

Systems And Methods For Cryptographic Authentication Of Contactless Cards
Patent No. 12261960
Example embodiments of systems and methods for data transmission system between transmitting and receiving devices are provided. In an embodiment, each of the transmitting and receiving devices can contain a master key. The transmitting device can generate a diversified key using the master key, protect a counter value and encrypt data prior to transmitting to the receiving device, which can generate the diversified key based on the master key and can decrypt the data and validate the protected counter value using the diversified key.
Inventors: Kevin Osborn (Newton Highlands, Mass.); Jeffrey Rule (Chevy Chase, Md.); Paul Moreton (Glen Allen, Va.); William Duane (Westford, Mass.); Colin Hart (Arlington, Va.); Kaitlin Newman (Washington, D.C.); Lara Mossler (Farmville, Va.); Daniel Herrington (New York, N.Y.); Srinivasa Chigurujpati (Long Grove, Ill.); Ian Prince (Toronto, Canada); Wayne Lutz (Fort Washington, Md.)
Assignee: Capital One Services (McLean, Va.)
March 25, 2025

Heating Engine Control Circuits And Non-nicotine Electronic Vaping Devices Including The Same
Patent No. 12256785
The heating engine control circuit includes a rail converter circuit and a gate driver circuit. The rail converter circuit is configured to convert a power supply voltage into a power signal based on a vaping enable signal, the vaping enable signal being a pulse width modulated signal. The gate driver circuit includes an integrated gate driver. The integrated gate driver is configured to control application of power to a heater of the non-nicotine electronic vaping device based on the power signal, a first enable signal and a second enable signal.
Inventors: Niall Gallagher (Cambridge, Great Britain); Terrance Bache (Richmond); Rangaraj S. Sundar (Midlothian, Va.); Jarrett Keen (Richmond); Raymond W. Lau (Glen Allen, Va.); Eric Hawes (Glen Allen, Va.)
Assignee: Altria Client Services (Richmond)
March 25, 2025

Devices And Methods For Selective Contactless Communication
Patent No. 12260393
A card having an antenna, one or processors, and memory having stored thereon a first application and a second application configured to receive an input of the card and determine a request associated with the input. The card is further configured to activate, responsive to determining that the request is consistent with a contactless EuroPay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) data standard, the first application. The first application is configured to communicate, via near field communication (NFC), data to the communicating device via the antenna based on the EMV data standard for payment purposes. The card is further configured to activate, responsive to determining that the request is consistent with a near field communication data exchange format (NDEF) standard, the second application. The second application is configured to communicate, via NFC, data to the communicating device via the antenna based on the NDEF standard for verification/identification purposes.
Inventors: Jeffrey Rule (Chevy Chase, Md.); Kaitlin J. Newman (Washington, D.C.); Wayne David Lutz (Fort Washington, D.C.); Kevin Grant Osborn (Newton Highlands, Mass.); Paul Moreton (Glen Allen, Va.)
Assignee: Capital One Services (McLean, Va.)
March 25, 2025

System And Method For Securely Hosting Multiple Network Operators In A Shared Spectrum Access System On A Single Virtual Base Station Environment
Patent No. 12262234
Disclosed is a virtual base station capable of hosting multiple network operators and/or private networks in a single compute environment. The virtual base station includes a plurality of virtual baseband processors configured to communicate with the plurality of mobile network operators, a supervisor module, a fronthaul network interface configured to be coupled to one or more remote units, and a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) coordinator module coupled to the supervisor module and the one or more virtual baseband processors. The base station may have on or more CBRS (Citizens Broadband Radio Service) Daemons to act as a proxy for obtaining grants to CBRS channels and allocating the CBRS channels to the mobile network operators.
Inventors: Massimo Notargiacomo (Castel Bolognese, Italy); Todd Landry (Grayslake, Ill.); Jeffrey Masters (Ashland, Va.); Roberto Orlandini (Budrio, Italy); Jeffrey Courington (Chester, Va.); Francesco Foresta (Faenza, Italy); Stephen Turner (Mechanicsville, Va.); Alessandro Pagani (San Giovanni, Italy); Domenico Di Iorio (Ravenna, Italy); Kurt Jacobs (Lake Bluff, Ill.); Patrick Henkle (Homer Glen, Ill.); Vishal Agrawal (Vernon Hills, Ill.); Sasi Eswaravaka (Round Lake, Ill.); Paul Stath (Moseley, Va.)
Assignee: John Mezzalingua Associates (Liverpool, N.Y.)
March 25, 2025

Method Of Using A Sterilization Wrap System
Patent No. 12257822
A method of using a sterilization wrap system including a permeable material having barrier properties and having a first surface and a second opposing surface, the exterior panel being substantially opaque or having a first level of translucence, and an interior panel including a permeable material having barrier properties and having a first surface and a second opposing surface, the interior panel having a level of translucence that is higher than the translucence of the exterior panel, the panels being joined together over at least a portion of their surfaces. Also disclosed is inspection of the sterilization wrap system for exterior panel breaches by looking for light passing through a panel facing the viewer.
Inventors: Jeffrey James Farmer (Roswell, Ga.); Kelly L. Holt (Alpharetta, Ga.); Ronald K. Anderson (Fruit Heights, Utah); Melissa R. Gaynor (Roswell, Ga.); Corinna Schwarz (Roswell, Ga.)
Assignee: O&M Halyard (Mechanicsville, Va.)
March 25, 2025

Meta-agent Based Adaptation In Multi-agent Systems For SOA System Evaluation
Patent No. 12261763
Systems and methods are provided for addressing the complexity inherent in evaluating Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) systems by using meta-agent based adaptation in multi-agent systems. Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a multi-agent based automated evaluation capability for distributed, SOA systems that can dynamically adapt to the non-deterministic nature of such systems to enable a continuous monitoring capability for detecting and circumventing operational errors as they arise.
Inventors: Hesham Fouad (Arlington, Va.); Stephen Russell (Laurel, Md.); Antonio Gilliam (Hopewell, Va.)
Assignee: The Government of the United States of America, as represented by the Secretary of the Navy (Arlington, Va.)
March 25, 2025