U.S. Patent 7954682 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2011-06-07 and describes a “Surgical instrument with elements to communicate between control unit and end effector.” This patent has been cited 410 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, such as an endoscopic or laparoscopic instrument, includes a shaft having a proximal end and a distal end. The shaft includes a first sensor element. An end effector is coupled to the distal end of the shaft. The end effector includes a second sensor element. A handle is connected to the proximate end of the shaft. The handle includes a control unit. The control unit is in communication with the first sensor element and the first sensor element is in wireless communication with the second sensor element. Link: U.S. Patent 7954682

This patent was originally filed on 2007-01-10 which gives it a processing time of 1609 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 James R. Giordano of Milford Charter Twp, MI. The primary examiner was Rinaldi I. Rada.

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