The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued Patent No 7,799,002 (Safety Syringe) to Protectus Medical Devices that offers 20 years of patent protection for the spring structure and the company's new automatic, self-sheathing Safety Syringe.
The company claims that its Safety Syringe functions as a fully automatic, self-sheathing syringe, as specified by the OSHA mandate, that can be used in essentially all applications requiring the use of hypodermic syringes, eg, intramuscular, intravenous and subcutaneous.
Safety Syringe is also cost-effective and has a passive safety feature which automatically covers the needle and allows it to be changed safely without exposing an unprotected needle.
Protectus Medical Devices CEO John Salstrom said that because the spring is a central feature of the other devices in company’s development pipeline – namely, two Safety Dental Syringes, a Safety IV Catheter and a Safety Phlebotomy Device – this patent also provides 20 years of patent protection for each of these devices, in addition to the patent protection that each will have pending issuance of individual patents filed or to be filed for each device.