U.S. Patent 8540129 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2013-09-24 and describes a “Surgical stapling instrument with improved firing trigger arrangement.” This patent has been cited 247 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 instrument including an actuator knob which can be moved from one side of the stapling instrument to another side in order to reposition the actuator knob without having to reposition the stapling instrument within a surgical site. A stapling instrument can include a pusher bar, a housing having a first side and a second side, and an actuator knob rotatably mounted to the pusher bar wherein the actuator knob can be configured to be rotated between a first position in which the actuator knob can be moved along the first side of the housing and a second position where the actuator knob can be moved along a second side of the housing. Alternatively, a surgical stapling instrument can comprise one or more actuator knobs which can be operably engaged and disengaged with a pusher bar in order to selectively utilize the actuator knobs. Link: U.S. Patent 8540129

This patent was originally filed on 2010-07-26 which gives it a processing time of 1156 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 James J. Bedi of Cincinnati, OH. The primary examiner was Scott A. Smith.

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