US Patent Issued to Aesculap on May 26 for "Surgical instrument having a blocking means" (German Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,636,029, issued on May 26, was assigned to Aesculap AG (Tuttlingen, Germany).

"Surgical instrument having a blocking means" was invented by Nikolaus Hafner (Tuttlingen, Germany), Eugen Herner (Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany), Hannes Kizenberger (Immendingen, Germany) and Erik Walberg (Augsburg, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A surgical instrument and use of a surgical instrument in open surgery. The instrument has two gripping limbs and a blocking element that releasably locks the gripping limbs relative to one another. The blocking element has a female locking assembly and a male locking assembly. The female locking assembly has...