US Patent Issued to Intuitive Surgical Operations on Oct. 7 for "Geared grip actuation for medical instruments" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 8 -- United States Patent no. 12,433,701, issued on Oct. 7, was assigned to Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

"Geared grip actuation for medical instruments" was invented by Bram Gilbert Antoon Lambrecht (Redwood City, Calif.) and Thomas G. Cooper (Menlo Park, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An actuation mechanism for a medical instrument includes a pinion and a face gear that move a push-pull element. The pinion has a mounting that permits rotation of the pinion by an external control system such as a robot. The face gear meshes with the pinion. The push-pull element may have a proximal end coupled to the face gear and a distal end coupled to...