U.S. Patent 8328062 was awarded to Covidien LP on 2012-12-11 and describes a “Surgical instrument with curvilinear tissue-contacting surfaces.” This patent has been cited 265 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 stapling instrument including a handle assembly, an elongated body portion, a shell assembly and an anvil assembly. The elongated body portion extends distally from the handle assembly and defines a longitudinal axis. The shell assembly is disposed adjacent a distal end of the elongated body portion and includes a non-planar, tissue-contacting surface oriented obliquely with respect to the longitudinal axis. The anvil assembly includes a non-planar, tissue-contacting surface oriented obliquely with respect to the longitudinal axis. The tissue-contacting surface of the anvil assembly is configured to align with the tissue-contacting surface of the shell assembly when the anvil assembly and shell assembly are in the approximated position. Link: U.S. Patent 8328062

This patent was originally filed on 2010-06-03 which gives it a processing time of 922 days, compared to an average processing time of 983 in the field. Covidien LP has 3582 total patents. The first named inventor is Frank J. Viola of Sandy, UT. The primary examiner was Robert Long.

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