US Patent Issued to Cilag GmbH International on March 24 for "Surgical instrument with lockout features" (Chinese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 24 -- United States Patent no. 12,582,397, issued on March 24, was assigned to Cilag GmbH International (Zug, Switzerland).

"Surgical instrument with lockout features" was invented by Sheng Ding (Shanghai), Chunchun Liu (Shanghai) and Hong Xiangchun (Shanghai).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A surgical instrument includes a lockout assembly that can be unlocked by a surgical staple cartridge. The lockout assembly prevents a pair of closure plates and a firing bar of the surgical instrument from advancing distally when in a locked position, and allows the pair of closure plates and the firing bar to advance distally when in an unlocked position."

The patent was filed on A...