ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,414,829, issued on Sept. 16, was assigned to Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).
"Instrument release" was invented by Bram Gilbert Antoon Lambrecht (Redwood City, Calif.) and Robert E. Holop (Santa Clara, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A medical instrument includes a backend and a pair of release elements. The backend includes a docking feature shaped to engage a docking structure such as a docking port of a surgical robot or a sterile adaptor for a surgical robot. Each release element is coupled to the backend and may include an activation feature on one side of the backend and a push tab extending from eithe...