U.S. Patent 8584919 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2013-11-19 and describes a “Surgical stapling apparatus with load-sensitive firing mechanism.” 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:

A surgical stapling apparatus having an end effector capable of performing a surgical procedure. The surgical stapling apparatus may include a driving pawl that interfaces with a manually actuatable handle. The driving pawl may have a pawl body with a driving tooth thereon that is configured to interact with an actuation shaft such that, as the manually actuatable handle is actuated, the driving tooth interacts with the actuation shaft to cause the actuation shaft to apply the actuation motions to an elongated body operably coupled to the end effector. When the end effector experiences a firing load that exceeds a predetermined magnitude of firing load, the driving tooth moves relative to the pawl body to disengage from the actuation shaft to prevent further transfer of the actuation motions to the elongated body even though the manually actuatable handle continues to be actuated. Link: U.S. Patent 8584919

This patent was originally filed on 2008-02-14 which gives it a processing time of 2105 days, compared to an average processing time of 1097 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is Mark S. Ortiz of Milford Charter Twp, MI. The primary examiner was Scott A. Smith.

Select Patents monitors top medical technology patents and instruments patents which have been allowed and granted worldwide. If you would like legal advice regarding a patent or would like to file a patent go to https://selectpatents.wpengine.com/contact/