ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 24 -- United States Patent no. 12,583,097, issued on March 24, was assigned to Olympus Medical Systems Corp. (Tokyo).
"Insertion instrument" was invented by Takumi Kawakami (Tachikawa, Japan), Ryo Hasegawa (Hachioji, Japan) and Eijiro Sato (Hachioji, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An insertion instrument comprises an insertion portion including a bending portion provided at a distal end side of the insertion portion, a first wire provided in the insertion portion, and an operation portion provided at a proximal end side of the insertion portion. The operation portion includes a bending operation unit. The bending operation unit includes a lever having a central sh...