ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 4 -- United States Patent no. 12,318,280, issued on June 3, was assigned to Alcon Inc. (Fribourg, Switzerland).

"Removable cap actuation for an intraocular lens cartridge" was invented by Sudarshan B. Singh (Euless, Texas), Todd Taber (Keller, Texas), Yinghui Wu (Cedar Hill, Texas), Douglas Brent Wensrich (Bedford, Texas), Sam Jang (Woodbury, Minn.) and Chris Pinkham (St. Paul, Minn.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Systems, methods, and apparatuses for removably attaching a drive mechanism handpiece to an intraocular lens (IOL) cartridge that folds the IOL upon removal of a cap, are provided. The IOL cartridge comprises a nozzle and a housing comprising a slide. A compart...