U.S. Patent 7980443 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2011-07-19 and describes a “End effectors for a surgical cutting and stapling instrument.” This patent has been cited 380 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:

In various embodiments, an anvil of a disposable loading unit including a first member having staple pockets for deforming staples, a first cover plate secured to the first member, and a second cover plate secured to at least one of the first member and the first cover plate, wherein the first and second cover plates can be configured to support the first member. In at least one embodiment, an anvil can include a first member inserted into a second member, where at least one of the first and second members can be deformed to retain one to the other. In various embodiments, a surgical stapling instrument can include a disposable loading unit comprising a staple cartridge, an anvil, and a sleeve, wherein the sleeve can be configured to be slid relative to the staple cartridge and the anvil to hold the anvil in a closed position. Link: U.S. Patent 7980443

This patent was originally filed on 2008-02-15 which gives it a processing time of 1250 days, compared to an average processing time of 1097 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is William D. Kelly of Mason, MI. The primary examiner was Scott A. Smith.

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