U.S. Patent 8567656 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2013-10-29 and describes a “Staple cartridges for forming staples having differing formed staple heights.” This patent has been cited 240 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 staple cartridge for use with a stapling device that has an actuator that is selectively actuatable in an axial direction and an anvil portion that is selectively movable between open and closed positions is disclosed. Various embodiments of the present invention include a cartridge body that movably supports first and second staple drivers. The staple drivers each support a staple thereon and serve to drive the staples into forming contact with the anvil upon actuation by the actuator. The various embodiments of the present invention enable the final formed heights of the staples to be varied so as to apply various clamping forces and pressures to soft tissue captured within the staples. In at least one embodiment, the staples can include crowns formed thereon which can be utilized to adjust or control the clamping force and/or pressure applied by the staples. Link: U.S. Patent 8567656

This patent was originally filed on 2011-03-28 which gives it a processing time of 946 days, compared to an average processing time of 837 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is Michael A. Murray of Bellevue, WA. The assistant examiner was Nathaniel Chukwurah.

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