US Patent Issued to Intuitive Surgical Operations on March 24 for "Cartridge status and presence detection" (California, Connecticut Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 24 -- United States Patent no. 12,582,398, issued on March 24, was assigned to Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

"Cartridge status and presence detection" was invented by David W. Weir (Emerald Hills, Calif.), Kevin Durant (Alameda, Calif.), William Burbank (Sandy Hook, Conn.) and Patrick Flanagan (Santa Clara, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Surgical systems and related methods for detecting whether a surgical instrument lacks a surgical cartridge in an unfired condition. A method of detecting that a surgical instrument lacks a surgical cartridge in an unfired condition mounted to the surgical instrument includes commanding a movement of the...