U.S. Patent 8162197 was awarded to Tyco Healthcare Group LP on 2012-04-24 and describes a “Surgical stapler.” This patent has been cited 260 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 device is described herein that can be used to fire different types and sizes of disposable loading units. In a preferred embodiment, the device applies parallel rows of surgical fasteners to body tissue and concomitantly forms an incision between the rows of staples during an endoscopic or laparoscopic surgical procedure. The device can be utilized with disposable loading units configured to apply linear rows of staples measuring from about 15 mm in length to about 60 mm in length and can be used to fire disposable loading units containing surgical clips and individual staples. Link: U.S. Patent 8162197

This patent was originally filed on 2011-08-16 which gives it a processing time of 252 days, compared to an average processing time of 837 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 Scott A. Smith.

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