ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 20 -- United States Patent no. 12,390,093, issued on Aug. 19, was assigned to OLYMPUS Corp. (Tokyo).

"Endoscope, bending operation mechanism for endoscope, and operation portion for endoscope" was invented by Nobuaki Akui (Hino, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An endoscope includes: a first bearing including a first recess along a first central axis; a second bearing disposed in the first recess and provided with a second central axis intersecting the first central axis in the state of being disposed in the first recess, the second bearing including a second recess along the second central axis and being retained turnably around the first central axis; and an operat...