U.S. Patent 7819299 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2010-10-26 and describes a “Surgical instrument having a common trigger for actuating an end effector closing system and a staple firing system.” This patent has been cited 455 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 instrument including a trigger which can be configured to close a jaw member upon a first actuation of the trigger and advance a staple driver and/or cutting member upon a subsequent, or second, actuation of the trigger. Such a surgical instrument can allow a surgeon to position the surgical instrument in a surgical site and close the jaw member with an initial actuation of the trigger without deploying any staples into, or incising, the tissue. As a result, the surgeon can manipulate the position of the surgical instrument and then actuate the trigger a second time to deploy staples into, and/or incise, the tissue. In at least one such embodiment, the first actuation of the trigger which closes the jaw member can also unlock a firing drive configured to advance the staple driver and cutting member during the second actuation of the trigger. Link: U.S. Patent 7819299

This patent was originally filed on 2007-06-04 which gives it a processing time of 1240 days, compared to an average processing time of 1226 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is Frederick E. Shelton, IV of Hillsboro, OR. The assistant examiner was Gloria R. Weeks.

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