US Patent Issued to Intuitive Surgical Operations on Nov. 4 for "Medical devices having three tool members" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,458,459, issued on Nov. 4, was assigned to Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

"Medical devices having three tool members" was invented by Timothy A. Limon (Cupertino, Calif.) and Grant Duque (Campbell, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A medical device includes a link, a first tool member, a second tool member and a third tool member, which each have a proximal end portion movably coupled to the link and a distal end portion. The distal end portion of the first tool member can engage a first object and be associated with a first medical function, the distal end portion of the second tool member can engage a second...