10/124,214 filed on April 15,2002, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to cigarette rolling paper, and more particularly, to cigarette rolling paper having an adhesive edge.

Background of the Invention It is common practice for a smoker who rolls his own cigarettes to take a sheet of cigarette paper from a packet and wrap loose tobacco or other smoking material in the sheet, either manually or with the assistance of one of a variety of manually operated mechanical devices on the market. Rolling papers specifically made for tobacco smoking have been known since at least as early as the 19th century.

A typical known cigarette-paper package includes a case containing sheets of cigarette paper, each of which is gummed on one face along one of its longer edges, so that, after the cigarette is rolled on this edge and moistened, the edge can adhere to the body of the cigarette. The gum of the known cigarette papers is typically moisture-activated requiring the user to lick or otherwise moisten the gum prior to rolling the cigarette. The application of saliva can be inconvenient and, on occasion, socially undesirable. Moreover, if the user's saliva or other moistener used has a low moisture

content, the gum may not be activated to its optimal capacity, resulting in an ineffective adhesive.

In another known method of rolling a cigarette, a manually operated device is used to roll the cigarette and the device provides an adhesive to be applied to the cigarette paper. The application of an adhesive from the device can be inconvenient in that a reservoir of adhesive is usually required, and such a reservoir is subject to leakage, evaporation and drying up, or insufficiency of the adhesive.

Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a cigarette rolling paper that can be sealed in an effective, yet convenient manner.

Summary of the Invention A cigarette rolling paper is disclosed having a self-adhesive strip that does not require moisture for activation. The self-adhesive strip is preferably positioned along a long edge of the cigarette paper. An adhesive strip cover is releasably affixed to the self- adhesive strip for preserving the effectiveness of the adhesive strip until it is ready for use. In a preferred embodiment, the adhesive strip cover is substantially the same size as the self-adhesive strip. Furthermore, the adhesive strip cover is flexible and configured for single use.

When rolling a cigarette, the adhesive strip cover is peeled off, exposing the self-adhesive strip. The desired tobacco product is placed on the paper and the paper is rolled into the form of a rod. The self- adhesive strip then adheres to the outer surface of the rod, creating a cigarette. Or alternatively, the cover can be removed after the cigarette is rolled in order to prevent tobacco from adhering to the adhesive and thus effecting the adhesion.

Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description. It is to be understood, however, that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the present invention, are given by way of illustration and not limitation. Many changes and modifications within the scope of the present invention may be made without departing from the spirit thereof, and the invention includes all such modifications.

Brief Description of the Drawing The invention may be more readily understood by referring to the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1 depicts a top view of a preferred embodiment of the cigarette rolling paper of the present invention; FIG. 2 depicts the cigarette rolling paper of Figure 1 with the adhesive strip cover partially peeled from the adhesive strip; FIG. 3 depicts a perspective view of a cigarette formed by using shredded tobacco and a sheet of the cigarette rolling paper of the present invention; and FIG. 4 depicts an exploded view of a plurality of the cigarette rolling papers of the present invention stacked on top of each other.

Like numerals refer to like parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments A preferred embodiment of cigarette rolling paper 10 of the present invention, as shown in Figure 1, comprises a rectangular sheet of conventional smoking paper to facilitate the rolling of smoking products. The term

"smoking products"as used herein is defined throughout to include any of the commercially sold tobacco products which are smoked, but not chewed, and more specifically, which are smoked in a cylindrical-rod form, such as cigarettes and cigars. The sheet of paper is formed of conventional smoking paper of appropriate thickness, dimension and composition. It is to be understood that the sheet can be bleached, unbleached, flavored or nonflavored. The sheet is precut to a predetermined rectangular dimension of standardized width and length so that it conforms to the various standard lengths of tobacco products, such as 84 mm (regulars) and 100 mm (100s). It is to be understood that these dimensions are provided for purposes of reference and illustration, and can be other than that specifically described.

Each sheet is cut so that it has two long edges 12 and two wide edges 14. In a preferred embodiment, an adhesive is applied along a long edge 12, forming an adhesive strip 16. The adhesive must be of a type that can be safely inhaled when smoked and can bind the cigarette rolling paper when the paper is rolled. An adhesive strip cover 18 is provided to protect and cover the adhesive until the cigarette rolling paper is used.

The adhesive strip cover 18 preferably has substantially the same dimensions as the adhesive strip 16. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the adhesive strip cover 18 is made of a material that is easily separated from the adhesive strip 16. In one embodiment of the invention, the adhesive strip cover 18 has a smooth (slick) backing. As best shown in Figure 2, to expose the adhesive strip 16, the adhesive strip cover 18 is peeled back from the cigarette paper 10 and pulled across the long edge 12 of the paper, until the adhesive strip cover 18 completely separates from the adhesive strip.

The adhesive strip 16 is then prepared to seal a rolled cigarette paper.

Figure 3 shows the preferred method of use of the cigarette rolling paper 10 of the present invention. To roll a cigarette 30, loose cut-leaf tobacco products 28 are placed on the cigarette rolling paper 10 and the paper is rolled. The adhesive strip cover 18 is removed from the adhesive strip 16, exposing the adhesive strip.

The adhesive strip 16 is preferably positioned along the long edge 12 of the paper 10 so as to provide a firm adhesion between the inner and outer surfaces of the paper 10. The paper is rolled to form a cylindrical cigarette 30 and the adhesive strip affixes the edge 12 of the rolling paper 10 to the cigarette 30.

The use of an adhesive strip 16 in conjunction with an adhesive strip cover 18 enables a smoker to roll a cigarette without having to lick a moisture activated gum and without having to carry an adhesive reservoir from which adhesive can be applied to the cigarette paper.

The adhesive strip 16 conveniently provides a pre- determined amount of adhesive to seal the cigarette paper. Because the self-adhesive strip does not rely on a moistener, the user need not be concerned with providing sufficient moisture to fully activate the gum.

Accordingly, unlike the moisture activated gum, the self- adhesive strip 16 remains consistently effective.

Moreover, the adhesive strip cover 18 covers and protects the adhesive strip 16 until it is ready for use. The user has convenient access to the adhesive strip 16 by simply removing the strip cover 18 from the strip 16. The strip cover 18 is preferably a single-use cover and can be disposed after being peeled from the adhesive strip.

Another advantage of the cigarette rolling paper 10 of the present invention is that when stored, the papers 10 can be stacked on top of each other without sticking to each other. The normal moisture in air or accidental moisture can result in convention gummed paper sticking

to each other. However, in the preset invention, the papers remain separated even if there is an unintentional wetting of the papers. As shown in Figure 4, in a preferred embodiment of the invention, the cigarette rolling paper of the present invention is sold in a pack 40 containing a plurality of cigarette papers 10. Each paper 10 has a self-adhesive strip 16 and a strip cover 18. The combination of the self-adhesive strip 16 and the cover 18 allow the cigarette papers 10 to be stacked on top of each other without sticking to each other.

The embodiments described above are exemplary embodiments of the cigarette rolling paper of the present invention. Those skilled in the art may now make numerous uses of, and departures from, the above- described embodiments without departing from the inventive concepts disclosed herein. Accordingly, the present invention is to be defined solely by the scope of the following claims.