U.S. Patent 8439246 was awarded to Cardica, Inc. on 2013-05-14 and describes a “Surgical stapler with cartridge-adjustable clamp gap.” This patent has been cited 242 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 exemplary surgical apparatus for treating tissue may include an anvil; a jaw pivotally connected to the anvil; and a first cartridge detachably connected to the anvil, holding staples of a first size; where a first clamp gap between the anvil and first cartridge is set by the connection between the first cartridge and jaw. An exemplary cartridge for a surgical stapler may include a cartridge housing; a plurality of staples held within the cartridge housing; and a sled slidable within, and retained by, the cartridge housing, including a central platform, at least one wedge connected to the central platform, and a knife rotatable relative to the central platform. Link: U.S. Patent 8439246

This patent was originally filed on 2010-07-20 which gives it a processing time of 1029 days, compared to an average processing time of 983 in the field. Cardica, Inc. has 179 total patents. The first named inventor is Bryan D. Knodel of Flagstaff, AZ. The assistant examiner was Nathaniel Chukwarah.

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