U.S. Patent 8408439 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2013-04-02 and describes a “Surgical stapling instrument with an articulatable end effector.” This patent has been cited 294 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:

In various embodiments, a surgical instrument can comprise an end effector including a channel configured to support a staple cartridge and, in addition, an anvil pivotable between open and closed positions relative to the staple cartridge channel. The surgical instrument can further comprise a closure tube configured to at least partially surround the anvil and the staple cartridge channel to hold the anvil in a closed position. The closure tube can extend around the anvil a greater distance than the staple cartridge channel. The surgical instrument can further comprise a shaft and, in addition, an articulation joint pivotably connecting the end effector to the shaft. The articulation joint can further comprise a floating guide member which can guidably support a knife bar extending into the end effector and, at the same time, move independently of the end effector and the shaft to provide such support. Link: U.S. Patent 8408439

This patent was originally filed on 2010-04-22 which gives it a processing time of 1076 days, compared to an average processing time of 983 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is David B. Smith of Mason, OH. The assistant examiner was Michelle Lopez.

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