U.S. Patent 7714239 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2010-05-11 and describes a “Force switch.” This patent has been cited 281 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 mechanical force switch to be disposed along a longitudinal device axis of a medical device includes an electrically conductive switching piston to form a first electrical contact of the switch, a hollow body, an end stop, a bias device, and an electrically conductive second contact of the switch electrically insulated from the piston. The piston is movably disposed in the body hollow along the axis to define different switch-making and -breaking positions. The piston is also movably disposed in a cavity of the stop and the stop is disposed in the body. The stop can be a smooth or threaded puck. The bias device surrounds the piston and imparts bias against it to retain it in one of the two positions until an external axis force overcomes the bias, at which time the switch indicates a state changeover. The switch can be normally open or closed. Link: U.S. Patent 7714239

This patent was originally filed on 2008-11-13 which gives it a processing time of 544 days, compared to an average processing time of 1015 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is Kevin W. Smith, Jr. of Coral Gables, FL. The assistant examiner was Marina Fishman.

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