US Patent Issued to Intuitive Surgical Operations on March 18 for "Low-friction, small profile medical tools having easy-to-assemble components" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,251,088, issued on March 18, was assigned to Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

"Low-friction, small profile medical tools having easy-to-assemble components" was invented by Zhou Ye (Santa Clara, Calif.), Harsukhdeep Ratia (Foster City, Calif.) and Alain Sadaka (San Jose, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A low-friction medical device includes a first link, a second link, and a tension member. The first link is coupled to an instrument shaft and a first guide path is defined in the first link. The second link is rotatable relative to the first link through an angular range. A distal end portion of the second li...