ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,245,744, issued on March 11, was assigned to OLYMPUS WINTER & IBE GMBH (Hamburg, Germany).
"Endoscope" was invented by Martin Wieters (Barsbuettel, Germany) and Annika Goehring (Hamburg, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An endoscope including: an elongated shaft and an optical system disposed in the shaft. The optical system includes at least one prism. The prism is mounted in a prism holder. The prism holder having first and second stops for aligning the prism in at least first and second directions, respectively. Wherein the first stop forms a planar stop surface against which a first planar surface of the prism rests, and the s...