ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,616,356, issued on May 5, was assigned to KARL STORZ Imaging Inc. (Goleta, Calif.).
"Endoscopic illumination sleeve" was invented by Kent Watkiss (Florence, Mont.), Jonathan Bormet (Goleta, Calif.) and George E. Duckett III (Castaic, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An endoscopic illumination sleeve includes a housing holding a plurality of LED light sources (LEDs) for providing light to respective light fibers, the housing forming a chamber sized for encircling an endoscope shaft. A flexible sleeve is coupled to the housing and including the light fibers, the flexible sleeve adapted to be placed around the endoscope shaft such that a...