ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,357,290, issued on July 15, was assigned to BEAVER-VISITEC INTERNATIONAL (US) INC. (Waltham, Mass.).
"Iris expander" was invented by Dana M. Cote (Boxford, Mass.) and James J. Hughes (Dracut, Mass.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "In a first aspect of the subject invention, an iris expander is provided which includes a non-metallic, unitary, multi-segmented body which is expandable from a first state to a second state. The second state defines a larger footprint than the first state with the body being defined by a plurality of segments connected by living hinges. In a further aspect, an iris expander is provided which includes a multi-seg...