U.S. Patent 8424740 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2013-04-23 and describes a “Surgical instrument having a directional switching mechanism.” This patent has been cited 271 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 switching mechanism which allows a surgeon to selectively advance or retract a staple driver, cutting member, and/or other movable member within a staple cartridge. In various embodiments, the surgical instrument can include a handle, a trigger operatively coupled to the handle, a firing drive, and an end effector. In at least one embodiment, the trigger can be configured to slide between a first position in which an operation of the trigger can advance the movable member at a first rate and a second position in which an operation of the trigger can retract the movable member at a second rate. Link: U.S. Patent 8424740

This patent was originally filed on 2010-11-04 which gives it a processing time of 901 days, compared to an average processing time of 983 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is Chad P. Boudreaux of Cincinnati, OH. The assistant examiner was Gloria R Weeks.

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