US Patent Issued to INTUITIVE SURGICAL OPERATIONS on June 17 for "Instrument shafts with relief features, and related devices, systems, and methods" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,329,401, issued on June 17, was assigned to INTUITIVE SURGICAL OPERATIONS INC. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

"Instrument shafts with relief features, and related devices, systems, and methods" was invented by Thomas G. Cooper (Menlo Park, Calif.), Isabelle Tonnesen Heye (San Francisco) and Thomas Welch Brown (Santa Clara, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An instrument includes a tubular shaft, an end effector coupled to a distal end portion of the tubular shaft, and a relief feature extending circumferentially along a wall of the shaft and along at least a portion of a length of the shaft. The relief feature defines flexural members on oppos...