U.S. Patent 8496156 was awarded to Covidien LP on 2013-07-30 and describes a “Cartridge for applying varying amounts of tissue compression.” This patent has been cited 250 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 stapling apparatus includes a staple cartridge and an anvil member. The staple cartridge includes a plurality of surgical fasteners disposed in rows of retention slots. The staple cartridge may have an annular or linear configuration of retention slots. The tissue contacting surface of the staple cartridge may be tapered or stepped. The anvil member has a tissue contacting surface that includes a number of pockets arranged for substantially aligning with the retention slots. In addition, the tissue contacting surface of the anvil member may complement the tissue contacting surface of the staple cartridge. Link: U.S. Patent 8496156

This patent was originally filed on 2012-08-14 which gives it a processing time of 350 days, compared to an average processing time of 575 in the field. Covidien LP has 3582 total patents. The first named inventor is Kevin Sniffin of Danbury, TX. The primary examiner was Brian D Nash.

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