U.S. Patent 7743960 was awarded to Power Medical Interventions, Inc. on 2010-06-29 and describes a “Surgical device.” This patent has been cited 472 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 device that includes a first jaw having a distal end and a second jaw having a distal end. The second jaw is disposed in opposed correspondence with the first jaw. The first jaw is pivotably coupled to the second jaw. The surgical device also includes a biasing element, such as a spring, that biases the distal end of the first jaw towards the distal end of the second jaw. The device may also include a first driver disposed in the second jaw and coupled to the first jaw. The first driver is configured to cause separation of the first jaw and the second jaw when the first driver is actuated for opening the jaws and to close the first jaw and the second jaw when the first driver is actuated for closing the jaws. The device may also include at least one of a cutting element and a stapling element disposed within the second jaw, preferably a blade rotatably mounted on a wedge. A second driver is configured to move the cutting element and/or the stapling element proximally from a distal end toward the proximal end of the second jaw to at least one of cut and staple a section of tissue disposed between the first and second jaws. By biasing the distal ends of the first and second jaws towards each other, the surgical device may prevent a section of tissue which is disposed between the first and second jaws from escaping out from between the distal ends of the first and second jaws. Link: U.S. Patent 7743960

This patent was originally filed on 2003-06-11 which gives it a processing time of 2575 days, compared to an average processing time of 887 in the field. Power Medical Interventions, Inc. has 30 total patents. The first named inventor is John E. Burbank, III of Ridgefield, WA. The assistant examiner was Lindsay Low.

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