US Patent Issued to Covidien on June 24 for "Gap control via overmold teeth and hard stops" (Colorado, California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 25 -- United States Patent no. 12,336,749, issued on June 24, was assigned to Covidien LP (Mansfield, Mass.).

"Gap control via overmold teeth and hard stops" was invented by John R. Twomey (Longmont, Colo.), Dylan R. Kingsley (Broomfield, Colo.), James D. Allen IV (Broomfield, Colo.), Sean T. O'Neill (Los Gatos, Calif.) and Jeffrey M. Roy (Boulder, Colo.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A forceps includes an end effector assembly having a stop and a plurality of overmold teeth within at least one jaw member. One (or both) of the jaw members is moveable relative to the other between a spaced-apart position and an approximated position for grasping tissue therebetween. One (...