U.S. Patent 7721933 was awarded to Tyco Healthcare Group LP on 2010-05-25 and describes a “Surgical fastener applying apparatus.” This patent has been cited 273 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 fastener applying apparatus is provided including a cartridge half-section and an anvil half-section, the cartridge half-section and anvil half-section being relatively movable from an unclamped position to a clamped position; and a loading unit receivable in the cartridge half-section and having a plurality of staples and a plurality of staple pusher members. The cartridge half-section includes a frame; a member being longitudinally movable through the loading unit to interact with the plurality of staple pusher members to fire the staples; and a lockout mechanism arranged to block advancement of the member in a locked-out position of the lockout mechanism. In use, after loading of the loading unit in the surgical fastener applying apparatus and subsequent clamping of the cartridge and anvil half-sections, the lockout mechanism is moved to an unlocked position to allow advancement of the member. Link: U.S. Patent 7721933

This patent was originally filed on 2008-08-05 which gives it a processing time of 658 days, compared to an average processing time of 1097 in the field. Tyco Healthcare Group LP has 1168 total patents. The first named inventor is Frank J. Viola of Sandy, UT. The assistant examiner was Nathaniel Chukwurah.

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