ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,667,348, issued on June 30, was assigned to Fortimedix Assets II B.V. (Geleen, Netherlands).
"Steerable instrument comprising a tube element" was invented by Mattheus Hendrik Louis Thissen (Swalmen, Netherlands), Marcel Antonius Elisabeth Verbeek (Voerendaal, Netherlands) and Roy Christiaan Louisa Velter (Nuth, Netherlands).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A steerable instrument has a proximal end and a distal end, a steering device (168), and a tubular body (18) extending in a longitudinal direction from said proximal end to said distal end. The tubular body (18) has an intermediate flexible zone (12a) and a distal deflectable zone (17) an...