US Patent Issued to Covidien on Oct. 7 for "Articulated tool positioner and system employing same" (Rhode Island, Minnesota, Florida Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 8 -- United States Patent no. 12,433,576, issued on Oct. 7, was assigned to Covidien LP (Mansfield, Mass.).

"Articulated tool positioner and system employing same" was invented by Rene Robert (East Greenwich, R.I.), David Allen Zitnick (Providence, R.I.), Peter John Kenneth Cameron (St. Louis Park, Minn.), Leonard M. Faria (Bristol, R.I.) and Andrea Bajo (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A laparoscopic surgical apparatus for performing a surgical procedure through a single incision in a patient's body includes a gross positioning arm supported on a moveable platform, the gross positioner including a head; at least one articulated tool positioning appa...