U.S. Patent 7658312 was awarded to on 2010-02-09 and describes a “Surgical instrument having an articulated jaw structure and a detachable knife.” This patent has been cited 380 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 with articulated jaw structure includes a frame and two jaws. The jaws have proximal portions that are mounted to each other for movement in a substantially parallel relation between a fully open position wherein the jaws are separated for receiving tissue therebetween and an approximated position wherein the jaws are closer together. Preferably, the jaws are in the fully open position when the distal portion of at least of the jaws is located in an extended position and are in the approximated position when the distal portion of the extended jaw or jaws is located in a retracted position. The surgical instrument may further include a detachable knife assembly and knife actuating mechanism. Link: U.S. Patent 7658312

This patent was originally filed on 2004-04-05 which gives it a processing time of 2136 days, compared to an average processing time of 1003 in the field. has total patents. The first named inventor is Claude A. Vidal of Santa Barbara, CA. The assistant examiner was Lindsey Bachman.

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