U.S. Patent 7780663 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2010-08-24 and describes a “End effector coatings for electrosurgical instruments.” This patent has been cited 362 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 electrosurgical stapling instrument includes an end effector capable of applying bipolar RF energy into tissue. The end effector has a first pole electrode and a second pole electrode for forming an RF contact circuit with tissue. At least one of the electrodes may have a dielectric coating thereon to create a RF circuit with tissue. The dielectric coating can cover one of the electrodes to create a capacitive coupling circuit with tissue, or can have at least one open passageway extending through the dielectric coating to enable tissue contact with the electrode and the passage of RF energy therethrough. The dielectric coating on the electrode can be masked to create passageways through the dielectric, or the dielectric coating can be locally removed with a variety of techniques to form passageways. The dielectric coating may provide a barrier to prevent shorting between the dielectrically coated electrode and a conductive fastener embedded within tissue. Alternately, a cartridge coating can be used to reduce an electric surface sheet charge on the cartridge thermoplastic that can occur during the application of RF energy to tissue. Link: U.S. Patent 7780663

This patent was originally filed on 2006-09-22 which gives it a processing time of 1432 days, compared to an average processing time of 1933 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is David A. Witt of Maineville, OH. The primary examiner was Michael Peffley.

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