U.S. Patent 8245899 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2012-08-21 and describes a “Driven surgical stapler improvements.” This patent has been cited 262 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 fastener apparatus including a handle, an elongated shaft having a proximal end attached to the handle and a distal end extending therefrom. An end effector comprising a pair of jaws pivoted at a proximal end thereof and movable between an open and closed position, and a cartridge containing a plurality of surgical fasteners, the cartridge attached to the end effector. An electrically powered actuator for deploying the surgical fasteners. An electrically activated reverse mechanism for moving the elongated member from a distal most position within the end effector to a proximal position, the electrically activated reverse mechanism moves the elongated member proximally after the elongated member has moved to the distal most position by moving the trigger to the open position, and wherein after activation of the reverse mechanism proximal movement of the elongated member can be stopped by returning the trigger to its closed position. Link: U.S. Patent 8245899

This patent was originally filed on 2010-01-26 which gives it a processing time of 938 days, compared to an average processing time of 983 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is David C. Yates of Westchester, IL. The primary examiner was Brian D Nash.

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