US Patent Issued to Covidien on April 7 for "Locking and drive mechanisms for positioning and stabilization of catheters and endoscopic tools" (Minnesota Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 7 -- United States Patent no. 12,594,128, issued on April 7, was assigned to Covidien LP (Mansfield, Mass.).

"Locking and drive mechanisms for positioning and stabilization of catheters and endoscopic tools" was invented by Evan M. Gustafson (Minneapolis), Nathan J. Knutson (Long Lake, Minn.) and Franklin J. Burquest (Crystal, Minn.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A cannister system for containing a catheter, the cannister including a drive mechanism for driving the catheter from the cannister and into a luminal network of a patient, the cannister including an entrance point for insertion of a tool into the catheter."

The patent was filed on May 11, 2022, under Applicat...