US Patent Issued to Intuitive Surgical Operations on May 12 for "Surgical instrument shears" (California, Colorado, Michigan Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,622,722, issued on May 12, was assigned to Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

"Surgical instrument shears" was invented by Paul Floyd (San Jose, Calif.), Erik Nelson (Durango, Colo.) and Matthew Wixey (Rochester, Mich.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A medical device includes a blade support, a blade supported by the blade support, and a pin. The blade support includes a bore with an inner portion oriented toward the blade and an outer portion oriented away from the blade. A discontinuity is located at a boundary between the inner and outer portions of the bore. The pin includes a longitudinal axis and a yaw plane is d...