U.S. Patent 7891531 was awarded to on 2011-02-22 and describes a “Sub-miniature surgical staple cartridge.” This patent has been cited 256 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 sub-miniature surgical staple cartridge includes an elongated housing having longitudinally extending strips forming walls with a wall thickness preferably less than 0.015 inch. The walls define a plurality of longitudinally spaced pockets which receive a corresponding plurality of U-shaped surgical staples above generally flat corresponding drivers. The thin walls are formed of sheet metal or extruded plastics material or heat-formed sheet plastics material with the outer side walls having opposite end walls welded together or integrally connected. The outer side walls may be sheet metal enclosing sheet metal or plastic extruded internal walls, or the entire cartridge may be extruded of a plastics material or formed of sheet plastics material and have a plastic bottom wall. Link: U.S. Patent 7891531

This patent was originally filed on 2007-01-29 which gives it a processing time of 1485 days, compared to an average processing time of 1226 in the field. has total patents. The first named inventor is Gary L. Ward of Pleasant Hill, OH. The assistant examiner was Michelle Lopez.

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