U.S. Patent 8317070 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2012-11-27 and describes a “Surgical stapling devices that produce formed staples having different lengths.” This patent has been cited 290 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 device that comprises an end effector. According to various embodiments, the end effector comprises a circular anvil having a staple forming surface and a plurality of staples facing the staple forming surface of the anvil. The end effector also comprises a staple driver assembly comprising a plurality of staple drivers. Each staple driver supports one of the plurality of staples and is configured such that, when the staple driver assembly is actuated, each staple driver drives the staple into the staple forming surface of the anvil. A first quantity of the plurality of staple drivers has a first height and a second quantity of the plurality of staple drivers has a second height, wherein the first height is less than the second height. Link: U.S. Patent 8317070

This patent was originally filed on 2007-02-28 which gives it a processing time of 2099 days, compared to an average processing time of 1226 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is Joseph C. Hueil of Loveland, CO. The primary examiner was Rinaldi Rada.

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