ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,343,091, issued on July 1, was assigned to C. R. Bard Inc. (Franklin Lakes, N.J.).

"Apparatus and methods relating to intravascular positioning of distal end of catheter" was invented by Anthony K. Misener (Bountiful, Utah), Paul D. Morgan (Draper, Utah), William Robert McLaughlin (Bountiful, Utah), Ghassan S. Kassab (La Jolla, Calif.), William Combs (Galena, Ohio), Mark Svendsen (Indianapolis) and H. Toby Markowitz (Roseville, Minn.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Systems and methods for navigation and positioning a central venous catheter within a patient. The system may include a first pole and a second pole designed to generate an elec...