ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,257,399, issued on March 25, was assigned to Medtronic Vascular Inc. (Santa Rosa, Calif.).
"Medical catheter" was invented by Mick Donegan (Galway, Ireland), Kevin Ryan (Galway, Ireland), Colm Connolly (Galway, Ireland) and Barry O'Connell (Galway, Ireland).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A catheter may include an elongate body including a proximal portion including a proximal end, and a distal tip portion. The distal tip portion may include an inner liner and a marker band circumferentially surrounding the inner liner. The distal tip portion also may include an outer jacket circumferentially surrounding a first portion of the inner liner...