US Patent Issued to Covidien on July 21 for "Hand-held spherical antenna system to detect transponder tagged objects, for example during surgery" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,688,922, issued on July 21, was assigned to Covidien LP (Mansfield, Mass.).

"Hand-held spherical antenna system to detect transponder tagged objects, for example during surgery" was invented by William A. Blair (San Diego), David A Poirier (Escondido, Calif.) and Curtis Crump (Vista, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A hand-held antenna system allows medical personnel to ascertain the presence or absence of objects (e.g., medical supplies) tagged with transponders in an environment in which medical procedures are performed. In use, the hand-held antenna system may be positioned proximate a patient at a time after a medical procedure,...