U.S. Patent 7909220 was awarded to Tyco Healthcare Group LP on 2011-03-22 and describes a “Surgical stapler having an articulation mechanism.” This patent has been cited 336 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:

An articulation mechanism for use with a surgical instrument includes a shaft, a first member disposed in mechanical cooperation with the articulation shaft, a second member disposed in mechanical cooperation with the shaft, and a flexible shaft having proximal and distal portions. The flexible member is operatively coupled to the first and second members. Upon rotation of the articulation shaft, at least one of the first and the second members moves longitudinally with respect to the other of the first and second members between a first position where the first and second members are approximated to each other and a second position where the first and second members are spaced apart from each other. This longitudinal motion causes the distal portion of the flexible member to articulate relative to the proximal portion. Link: U.S. Patent 7909220

This patent was originally filed on 2008-10-03 which gives it a processing time of 900 days, compared to an average processing time of 1097 in the field. Tyco Healthcare Group LP has 1168 total patents. The first named inventor is Frank J. Viola of Sandy, UT. The primary examiner was Rinaldi I. Rada.

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