ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 20 -- United States Patent no. 12,390,230, issued on Aug. 19, was assigned to Aesculap AG (Tuttlingen, Germany).

"Signal forwarding or transmission in a surgical instrument" was invented by Roland-Alois Hoegerle (Tuttlingen, Germany), Frederick Lenzenhuber (Tuttlingen, Germany) and Andre Buerk (Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A rolling bearing, in particular a ball bearing, in particular for use in a surgical instrument, which is designed for forwarding or transmitting electrical signals and has for this purpose at least one signal line or signal path integrated in the rolling bearing. A sleeve, in particular for use in a surgical instrumen...