U.S. Patent 8453904 was awarded to W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. on 2013-06-04 and describes a “Apparatus for supplying surgical staple line reinforcement.” This patent has been cited 322 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:

An apparatus for supplying surgical buttress material to a surgical stapler is provided. The apparatus has a pivotable area for attaching surgical buttress material. The apparatus may also have an adhesive and a release liner disposed over the buttress material. Link: U.S. Patent 8453904

This patent was originally filed on 2008-10-08 which gives it a processing time of 1700 days, compared to an average processing time of 1097 in the field. W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. has 921 total patents. The first named inventor is Michael S. Winterling of Landenberg, PA. The assistant examiner was Gloria R Weeks.

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