U.S. Patent 8038686 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2011-10-18 and describes a “Clip applier configured to prevent clip fallout.” This patent has been cited 247 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 clip applier and methods for applying surgical clips to a vessel, duct, shunt, etc., during a surgical procedure are provided. In one exemplary embodiment, a surgical clip applier is provided having a housing with a trigger movably coupled thereto and a shaft extending therefrom with opposed jaws formed on a distal end thereof. The trigger is adapted to advance a clip to position the clip between the jaws, and to move the jaws from an open position to a closed position to crimp the clip positioned therebetween. The surgical clip applier can include a variety of features to facilitate use of the device, including features to align a clip with the jaws, features to prevent unintentional migration of a clip, and features to prevent clip fallout during formation. Link: U.S. Patent 8038686

This patent was originally filed on 2005-09-15 which gives it a processing time of 2224 days, compared to an average processing time of 1942 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is Mark A. Davison of Mason, MI. The primary examiner was Kathleen Sonnett.

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