U.S. Patent 7918376 was awarded to Cardica, Inc. on 2011-04-05 and describes a “Articulated surgical instrument.” This patent has been cited 318 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:

One example of a surgical instrument may include a handle, an end effector, and a shaft that connects the handle to the end effector, where the shaft includes an articulated region. At least one feeder belt may extend through the lumen of the shaft into the end effector, where at least one feeder belt may include at least one staple frangibly connected thereto. Link: U.S. Patent 7918376

This patent was originally filed on 2009-03-09 which gives it a processing time of 757 days, compared to an average processing time of 1080 in the field. Cardica, Inc. has 179 total patents. The first named inventor is Bryan D. Knodel of Flagstaff, AZ. The primary examiner was Rinaldi I. Rada.

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