U.S. Patent 7896214 was awarded to Tyco Healthcare Group LP on 2011-03-01 and describes a “Tissue stop for surgical instrument.” This patent has been cited 262 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 including a handle assembly, an elongated portion, an end effector, and a stop member is disclosed. The elongated portion extends distally from the handle assembly. The end effector is disposed adjacent a distal portion of the elongated portion and includes a first jaw member and a second jaw member. At least one jaw member is movable with respect to the other jaw member between spaced and approximated positions. The stop member is disposed adjacent a distal portion of the first jaw member and is pivotable with respect to the first jaw member between a first position, a significant portion of the stop member being positioned external to the first jaw member, and a second position capturing the tissue between the first jaw member and second jaw member. Link: U.S. Patent 7896214

This patent was originally filed on 2008-09-23 which gives it a processing time of 889 days, compared to an average processing time of 1097 in the field. Tyco Healthcare Group LP has 1168 total patents. The first named inventor is David M. Farascioni of Bethel, MN. The primary examiner was Brian D Nash.

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