U.S. Patent 8220688 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2012-07-17 and describes a “Motor-driven surgical cutting instrument with electric actuator directional control assembly.” This patent has been cited 318 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 motor-driven surgical instrument having a control assembly for controlling a switch of the instrument. The surgical instrument may comprise a motor control circuit, a drive member, and a slider. The drive member comprises a first shoulder at a first position and a second shoulder at a second position. A first portion of the slider interfaces the drive member such that the slider is moveable in a direction of movement of the drive member when either the first shoulder or the second shoulder of the drive member engages the first portion of the slider. A second portion of the slider actuates a switch of the motor control circuit when the drive member moves the slider to a first position relative to the first switch. In various embodiments, the switches of the control circuit are not embodied as a part of an IC. Link: U.S. Patent 8220688

This patent was originally filed on 2009-12-24 which gives it a processing time of 936 days, compared to an average processing time of 1080 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is Brett E. Swensgard of Westchester, IL. The assistant examiner was Robert Long.

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