ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,616,358, issued on May 5, was assigned to Neptune Medical Inc. (Burlingame, Calif.).
"Rigidizing sheath apparatus for an endoscope" was invented by Alexander Q. Tilson (Burlingame, Calif.), Thomas Hsiu (Palo Alto, Calif.), Niklas J. Helmick (San Jose, Calif.), Stephan T. Hoffmann (Danville, Calif.), Eugene Duval (Menlo Park, Calif.), Christopher J. Hasser (Lotus, Calif.), James M. Hayes (La Honda, Calif.), Elias Eleftheriades (Redwood City, Calif.) and Kai Pohlhammer (San Ramon, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Methods for preventing contamination of an endoscope may include coupling a sheath device to cover both the inside and outsid...