ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 15 -- United States Patent no. 12,661,206, issued on June 23, was assigned to Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).
"Handheld tool extender" was invented by Salim Dogan Sekercioglu (Sunnyvale, Calif.), Tor C. Anderson (Sunnyvale, Calif.), Jason K. Chan (Sunnyvale, Calif.), Benjamin G. Cohn (Sunnyvale, Calif.), Stephan Vrudny (Sunnyvale, Calif.) and Cynthia Warman (Sunnyvale, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A medical instrument includes a tool extender used to retain and move a tool relative to a flexible elongate device. The tool extender includes a slider that allows a user to move the tool relative to a flexible elongate device with one hand usi...