ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,220,324, issued on Feb. 11, was assigned to Globus Medical Inc. (Audubon, Pa.).
"Expandable vertebral prosthesis" was invented by Noah Hansell (King of Prussia, Pa.), Marcin Niemiec (Norristown, Pa.) and William S. Rhoda (Media, Pa.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present invention relates to an expandable prosthetic implant device for engagement between vertebrae generally comprising an inner member, outer member, gear member and a locking assembly positioned coaxial with respect to each other such that the inner and outer members are moveable relative to each other along an axis. The gear member is axially fixed to the outer member ...