US Patent Issued to Intuitive Surgical Operations on March 3 for "Motor interface for parallel drive shafts within an independently rotating member" (California, Connecticut Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,564,461, issued on March 3, was assigned to Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

"Motor interface for parallel drive shafts within an independently rotating member" was invented by Gregory W. Dachs II (San Francisco), Todd E. Murphy (Palo Alto, Calif.), William A. Burbank (Sandy Hook, Conn.), William A McDonald II (Santa Clara, Calif.) and Bruce Michael Schena (Menlo Park, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Method of actuating an end effector of a surgical device employ a drive shaft to actuate the end effector. A method of actuating an end effector of a surgical device includes rotating a main shaft relative to the...