ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,324,565, issued on June 10, was assigned to Neptune Medical Inc. (Burlingame, Calif.).
"Methods of attaching a rigidizing sheath to an endoscope" was invented by Alexander Q. Tilson (Burlingame, Calif.), Thomas Hsiu (Palo Alto, Calif.), Niklas J. Helmick (San Jose, Calif.), Stephan T. Hoffmann (Danville, Calif.), Eugene Duval (Menlo Park, Calif.), Christopher J. Hasser (Lotus, Calif.), James M. Hayes (La Honda, Calif.), Elias Eleftheriades (Redwood City, Calif.) and Kai Pohlhammer (San Ramon, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Methods for preventing contamination of an endoscope may include coupling a sheath device to cover both the i...