Ethicon Endo-surgery, Inc.

Howard N Flaxman

William David Kelly

Michael Robert Ludzack

Michael L Kruszynski

John L Welsh

A system for effective, efficient and controlled public disclosure of inventions, developments and/or discoveries for protecting patent rights includes a publicly accessible central server to which a public at large is connected via a global communication network. The publicly available central server is composed of an interface module through which either a member of the public at large or an inventor, patent applicant or patent assignee is guided to either a public disclosure module or a database module. The public disclosure module provides inventors, patent applicants, and patent assignees with the ability to upload their disclosure materials relating to their inventions, developments and/or discoveries for public access via the database module. Once the disclosure material is uploaded via the public disclosure module, disclosure of the invention, development and/or discovery is incorporated into the database module for access by the public at large.

Invention disclosure system

A linear surgical stapler adapted for applying a plurality of surgical fasteners to body tissue includes an anvil structure and a cartridge housing containing a plurality of surgical fasteners. The cartridge housing and anvil structure are relatively movable between a first spaced apart position and a second position in close approximation with one another. A firing mechanism is associated with the cartridge housing for ejecting the surgical fasteners from the cartridge housing to be driven against the anvil structure. A lockout mechanism interacts with the cartridge housing for selective activation and deactivation. The lockout mechanism includes a swing gate tab secured to the cartridge housing at a position adjacent a lockout lever, such that firing of the linear surgical stapler rotates the swing gate tab releasing the lockout lever for preventing further firing of the used cartridge housing.

Growing community of inventors

McLean, VA, United States of America

Howard N Flaxman