U.S. Patent 7780055 was awarded to Tyco Healthcare Group LP on 2010-08-24 and describes a “Loading unit having drive assembly locking mechanism.” This patent has been cited 351 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 disposable loading unit is provided which includes a tool assembly and a body portion. A drive assembly is movably positioned at least partly within the body portion and is operably associated with the tool assembly to operate the tool assembly. A locking mechanism is provided for maintaining the drive assembly in a prefired position prior to and during attachment of a DLU to a surgical instrument. The locking mechanism includes a locking member and a locking member actuator. The locking member actuator is movable to move the locking member to an unlocked position in response to linear insertion of an insertion tip of the DLU into a surgical instrument. Link: U.S. Patent 7780055

This patent was originally filed on 2005-04-06 which gives it a processing time of 1966 days, compared to an average processing time of 1244 in the field. Tyco Healthcare Group LP has 1168 total patents. The first named inventor is Roman Czernik of Trumbull, CT. The assistant examiner was Michelle Lopez.

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