U.S. Patent 7857183 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2010-12-28 and describes a “Surgical instrument incorporating an electrically actuated articulation mechanism.” This patent has been cited 332 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 particularly suited to endoscopic use articulates an end effector by including an articulation mechanism in an elongate shaft that incorporates an electrically actuated polymer (EAP) actuator for remotely articulating the end effector. In particular, a flexible neck to a frame of the elongate neck may be laterally urged to the left or right by EAP actuators and advantageously locked into an articulated state. Link: U.S. Patent 7857183

This patent was originally filed on 2005-03-31 which gives it a processing time of 2098 days, compared to an average processing time of 1244 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is Frederick E. Shelton, IV of Hillsboro, OR. The primary examiner was Rinaldi I Rada.

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