ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,295,787, issued on May 13, was assigned to FUJIFILM Corp. (Tokyo).
"Ultrasonic endoscope" was invented by Yasuhiko Morimoto (Kanagawa, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The ultrasonic endoscope includes: an insertion part that includes a tip, a base end, and a longitudinal axis; an ultrasonic transducer that is provided at the tip of the insertion part; a locking groove that is a balloon mounting portion which is disposed closer to the base end of the insertion part than the ultrasonic transducer is and on which a balloon wrapping the ultrasonic transducer is detachably mounted; a balloon pipe line that extends in the insertion part; ...