U.S. Patent 8403198 was awarded to Covidien LP on 2013-03-26 and describes a “Apparatus for forming variable height surgical fasteners.” This patent has been cited 286 times by other U.S. patents which places it in the top 500 cited patents since 2010 according to our law firm research, and makes it of the most innovative medical technology patents in the field of instruments. The abstract states:

A surgical device for applying a plurality of surgical staples is provided. The device includes a staple fastening assembly attached to a surgical instrument. The staple fastening assembly includes a pair of cooperating jaws, a jaw operating mechanism, and a gap sensor. A staple magazine having a plurality of staples and an anvil member having a plurality of staple pockets are attached to the jaws. The staple magazine includes a staple crimping cam and a staple dimpling cam that are operatively coupled to the surgical instrument. The jaw operating mechanism is operatively connected to a drive assembly in the surgical instrument for moving the jaws for automatically setting a tissue gap between the cooperating jaws. The gap sensor cooperates with the jaw operating mechanism for controlling staple formation. Link: U.S. Patent 8403198

This patent was originally filed on 2012-01-05 which gives it a processing time of 446 days, compared to an average processing time of 575 in the field. Covidien LP has 3582 total patents. The first named inventor is Frank J. Viola of Sandy, UT. The primary examiner was Robert Long.

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