ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,376,961, issued on Aug. 5, was assigned to EDWARDS LIFESCIENCES Corp. (Irvine, Calif.).

"Method of implanting a prosthetic heart valve assembly" was invented by Stanton J. Rowe (Newport Coast, Calif.), Mark Chau (Laguna Hills, Calif.) and Son V. Nguyen (Irvine, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method of implanting a prosthetic heart valve assembly includes advancing a delivery catheter through a vein and toward a native heart valve. The prosthetic heart valve assembly is deployed from a lumen of the delivery catheter, allowing the prosthetic heart valve assembly to self-expand from a compressed state to a functional size within an ...