U.S. Patent 8453912 was awarded to Covidien LP on 2013-06-04 and describes a “Surgical stapler.” This patent has been cited 257 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 8453912

This patent was originally filed on 2012-08-24 which gives it a processing time of 284 days, compared to an average processing time of 575 in the field. Covidien LP has 3582 total patents. The first named inventor is Frank J. Viola of Sandy, UT. The primary examiner was Scott A. Smith.

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