US PATENT CLASS 131
Class Notes
Current as of: June, 1999
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DEFINITION
Classification: 131/
This class includes:
(A) Products containing tobacco or tobacco substitutes intended for personal use for smoking or chewing or for use as snuff.
(B) Processes and apparatus for manufacturing the products set forth in paragraph (1) where not elsewhere provided for.
(C) Processes and apparatus for treating tobacco preliminary or subsequent to manufacturing into products of paragraph (1) where not elsewhere provided for.
(D) Appliances peculiarly adapted to use by smokers where not elsewhere provided for.
NOTES TO THE CLASS DEFINITION
(1) Note. The word "tobacco", as used in this class, is considered generic to any material which may be smoked or may be substituted for real tobacco.
(2) Note. Tobacco product manufacturing apparatus may be
claimed in combination with apparatus of another classified art. When such is the case, the combination will be found with the other classified art, if the tobacco product manufacturing apparatus is in name only, or no more of the apparatus is claimed than is necessary to support the operation of the other classified art device. LINES WITH OTHER CLASSES
LINE WITH CLASS 34
The line between Class 34 and Class 131 is as follows: Tobacco drying apparatus, per se, is in Class 34. Tobacco drying apparatus combined with means to perform other operations and tobacco drying processes are in Class 131.
SEE OR SEARCH THIS CLASS, SUBCLASS:
77, through 83, for apparatus and processes for making cigarette mouthpieces and cigarette tubes.
133+, for dynamic type humidifying apparatus combined with tobacco handling means.
250.1, for a cigar or cigarette end cutter considered as a tobacco users' appliance.
353+, for a process or apparatus for making reconstituted tobacco, per se.
REFERENCES TO OTHER CLASSES
SEE OR SEARCH CLASS
30, Cutlery,
109, and indented subclasses for hand manipulable cigar tip cutters. 34, Drying and Gas or Vapor Contact With Solids, appropriate subclasses for apparatus for drying tobacco or tobacco articles. (See Lines With Other Classes and Within This Class, Line With Class 34, above.)
40, Card, Picture, or Sign Exhibiting,
321, and subclasses 299.01+, for cigars and cigarettes carrying indicia wherein the only modification of these products is to receive the indicia, and in particular subclasses 638 and 670 for labels for tobacco products
47, Plant Husbandry, appropriate subclasses for tobacco plant husbandry.
53, Package Making, appropriate subclasses for methods of and apparatus for encompassing or encasing goods or materials with a separate cover or band which serves as means for
identifying, protecting or unit handling the goods or material, particularly
396+, and 582+ for band type encasing; subclasses 148+ and 236 for packing long, slender articles (e.g., cigars, cigarettes) and subclass 198 for cigar banding.
55, Gas Separation, for gas or smoke filters of general utility and in which neither the disclosure nor a claim is directed solely to a filter for a tobacco users' appliance.
56, Harvesters,
27.5, for tobacco harvesting.
57, Textiles: Spinning, Twisting, and Twining, particularly
28, and indented subclasses for tobacco spinning,. 83, Cutting,
252, 253, and 313+ for cutting of tobacco, except for that which is provided for in this class (131). It should also be noted that apparatus to perforate an article will be found in Class 83. However, due to the uniqueness of the subject matter, apparatus and methods to perforate tobacco or a tobacco product will be found in this class (131).
118, Coating Apparatus, appropriate subclasses for coating apparatus, per se.
156, Adhesive Bonding and Miscellaneous Chemical Manufacture, appropriate subclasses for assembling, per se, of mouthpiece sheets and wrapper webs.
162, Paper Making and Fiber Liberation,
100+, for paper made from tobacco which is not disclosed as being for personal use as defined in Class 131.
201, Distillation: Processes, Thermolytic appropriate subclasses for destructive distillation processes for solid carbonaceous material.
202, Distillation: Apparatus, appropriate subclasses for destructive distillation apparatus.
206, Special Receptacle or Package, appropriate subclasses for pocket and personal use receptacle for cigars and tobacco, particularly
85+, for a tobacco container combined with an igniter means for the tobacco, subclasses 96+ for a match container including smoking debris receiver means, subclasses 236+ for a pocket or personal use container for a tobacco product and some other article or material-which combination is not elsewhere classified, and subclasses 242+ for a container for
tobacco, pipe, cigar, or cigarette. Where significant tobacco product structure or composition is claimed, classification is in the appropriate subclass of this (131) class.
209, Classifying, Separating, and Assorting Solids, appropriate subclasses for sorting, per se, of leaf tobacco or tobacco products,. 211, Supports: Racks, particularly
70.3, for pipe racks.
221, Article Dispensing, appropriate subclasses for devices for dispensing tobacco products either as individual entities or in packages. Classification is in Class 221 when no tobacco users' appliance is claimed in combination therewith.
229, Envelopes, Wrappers, and Paperboard Boxes,
87.12, 87.14 for cigar, cigarette, or tobacco wrappers.
239, Fluid Sprinkling, Spraying, and Diffusing,
34+, for static type humidifiers (slow diffusers) without a receptacle, and appropriate subclasses, particularly subclasses 340+ and 398+ for dynamic type humidifying apparatus.
241, Solid Material Comminution or Disintegration, appropriate subclasses for the indiscriminate cutting or comminution of tobacco when the comminutor is of that class (241) type.
261, Gas and Liquid Contact Apparatus, appropriate subclasses for dynamic type humidifying apparatus.
283, Printed Matter,
71, for revenue stamps, etc., where the invention is in the stamp, per se.
294, Handling: Hand and Hoist-Line Implements, 5.5,. for tobacco sticks and hangers.
312, Supports: Cabinet Structure,
31+, for static type humidifying receptacles for tobacco or tobacco products.
383, Flexible Bags, appropriate subclasses for a tobacco pouch, per se.
414, Material or Article Handling,
26, for tobacco stringing and unstringing.
424, Drug, Bio-Affecting and Body Treating Compositions, appropriate subclasses and particularly
197, for a composition of that class including a product obtained or extracted from tobacco.
426, Food or Edible Material: Processes, Compositions, and Products,
3+, for chewing gum containing no tobacco fiber.
431, Combustion, 129+, for a burner assembly having an igniter and a cover, and that is generally used for lighting a cigar or cigarette.
435, Chemistry: Molecular Biology and Microbiology, appropriate subclasses for tobacco extracts made by fermentations and processes for their manufacture.
451, Abrading,
419+, and indented subclasses for cigarette tube or continuous tobacco rod cutters with sharpening means of the grinding type.
460, Crop Threshing or Separating,
123+, for the concept of removing a tobacco leaf from the stalk.
493, Manufacturing Container or Tube From Paper; or Other Manufacturing From a Sheet or Web, e.g.,
39+, for a process or apparatus for cigarette filter making in which reconstituted tobacco is used as the filter material is properly classified in Class 493 unless it is disclosed that the filter itself can be smoked. Such disclosure would cause placement in Class 313.
514, Drug, Bio-Affecting and Body Treating Compositions, appropriate subclasses, especially
343, for a composition of that class including a product obtained or extracted from tobacco.
546, Organic Compounds, particularly
282, for nicotine containing extracts in general and processes of making. 800, Multicellular Living Organisms and Unmodified Parts Thereof and Related Processes,317.3, for a living tobacco plant, per se.