U.S. Patent 7721936 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2010-05-25 and describes a “Interlock and surgical instrument including same.” This patent has been cited 407 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 instrument is disclosed. The instrument includes an end effector comprising a moveable cutting instrument to cut an object and a motor coupled to the end effector. The motor actuates the cutting instrument in response to a current therethrough, causing the cutting instrument to move between a proximal-most position and a distal-most position. The instrument includes an interlock coupled to the end effector and to the motor to prevent actuation of the cutting instrument based on the current through the motor. Link: U.S. Patent 7721936

This patent was originally filed on 2007-01-10 which gives it a processing time of 1231 days, compared to an average processing time of 1226 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is James R. Giordano of Milford Charter Twp, MI. The primary examiner was Scott A. Smith.

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