U.S. Patent 7819296 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2010-10-26 and describes a “Surgical stapling apparatus with retractable firing systems.” This patent has been cited 441 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 configured for use with disposable loading units. In various embodiments, the surgical stapling apparatus includes a retraction system that interfaces with an actuation shaft that is movably supported within a handle housing. The actuation shaft is configured to move axially within the handle housing from a fully retracted position to a fully fired position in response to manipulation of a movable handle operably mounted to the handle housing. The retraction system serves to automatically retract the actuation shaft to the fully retracted position when the actuation shaft has moved to the fully fired position. Link: U.S. Patent 7819296

This patent was originally filed on 2008-02-14 which gives it a processing time of 985 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 Geoffrey C. Hueil of Cincinnati, OH. The primary examiner was Scott A. Smith.

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