US Patent Issued to Intuitive Surgical Operations on Aug. 4 for "Apparatus and method for minimally invasive suturing" (Massachusetts Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,697,115, issued on Aug. 4, was assigned to Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

"Apparatus and method for minimally invasive suturing" was invented by John C. Meade (Mendon, Mass.), Jerry R. Griffiths (Pembroke, Mass.), Francis J. DiFrancesco (Foxboro, Mass.) and Richard Clark (Holliston, Mass.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An apparatus and method for minimally invasive suturing is disclosed. A suturing device for minimally invasive suturing includes proximal section having a proximal end, a distal end, and a longitudinal axis therebetween, a suture head assembly extending from the distal end of the proximal section; a...