U.S. Patent 7954684 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2011-06-07 and describes a “Surgical stapling instrument with a firing member return mechanism.” This patent has been cited 386 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 instrument including a firing drive configured to selectively advance a firing member and/or cutting member relative to an end effector and, in addition, a reversing drive configured to selectively retract the firing member and/or cutting member relative to the end effector. In various embodiments, the surgical instrument can further include a switch including relatively movable first and second portions, wherein the first portion can be configured to operably disengage the firing drive from the firing member and, in addition, operably engage the reversing drive with the firing member. In at least one embodiment, the second portion can include a handle extending therefrom which can be motivated by the surgeon in order to engage the second portion with the first portion and move the first portion into position. Link: U.S. Patent 7954684

This patent was originally filed on 2008-01-10 which gives it a processing time of 1244 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 Chad P. Boudreaux of Cincinnati, OH. The primary examiner was Rinaldi I. Rada.

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