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World IP Day 2026 — Recognized Innovator
Dr. Jung
Joo Lee
- Founder & CEO
- LivsMed Inc.
Recognized for founder-led innovation in minimally invasive surgery. His vision helped shape a new class of surgical instruments that give laparoscopic surgeons greater freedom, control, and precision.
Certificate of Recognition
Top IP Innovator — Surgical Robotics & MIS Devices · 2026
LivsMed Patents (last 5 years)
0 +
First Filing
2014
USPTO Art Unit Focus
3771 / 3731
Role
Founder & CEO
Presented by InspireIP
World IP Day Recognition Series · 2026
LivsMed Patents in last 5 years
0 +
Filed in 2025 alone
0 +
Recognition category
0 Surgery
The Recognition
Bringing the precision of robotic
surgery to the surgeon's hand
On World IP Day 2026, InspireIP recognizes Dr. Jung Joo Lee, founder and CEO of LivsMed Inc., for founder-led innovation in minimally invasive surgery.
Under his leadership, LivsMed has built a highly active surgical technology patent portfolio, across articulating end tools, surgical instruments, robot arms, and electrocautery systems.
This recognition celebrates a founder whose clinical and engineering vision helped shape LivsMed’s approach to laparoscopic surgery. Founded in 2011, the company has focused on giving surgeons greater freedom, control, and precision through articulating instrument technology.
That vision is reflected in LivsMed’s ArtiSential® platform, ArtiSeal™ vessel sealing technology, and their ongoing work on telesurgery-capable robotic systems in partnership with Sovato.
Patent Footprint
A portfolio shaped around the surgeon's hand
2011
Dr. Lee founds LivsMed in Seongnam, South Korea, with the conviction that articulating, robotic-grade dexterity should be accessible to every surgeon.
2014
LivsMed's first US patent filing, with Dr. Lee named as inventor. This is the start of a deliberate IP strategy around multi-joint surgical end tools and intuitive manipulation.
2018–2019
ArtiSential® launches in Korea (2018) and the US (2019), winning the Red Dot Design Award and recognition from SAGES. The portfolio scales alongside commercial expansion.
2024–2025
A breakout filing window, with 49 patents across two years, alongside the launch of ArtiSential 5 (first 5mm wristed instrument), ArtiSeal™ (world's first 90° articulating vessel sealer), and a telesurgery partnership with Sovato.
Surgical Robotics · MIS Devices
A small-entity company filing alongside the giants of MIS
LivsMed is classified by the USPTO as a Small Entity.
Yet its five-year filing volume sits comfortably alongside far larger surgical-platform companies. Much of that activity is concentrated in the mechanical and manufacturing art units that protect surgical instruments, end tools, and robotic arms.
Patents in last 5 years
Peak years (2024–25)
Fillings
USPTO entity status
Small Entity
Art unit focus
3771 / 3731 / 3774
"Leading an innovation program is harder than inventing on your own. It means choosing what to file, who to credit, and where to invest, over and over, for years.
The leaders we recognize on World IP Day have done that consistently, and built something that compounds."
Sam Zellner
Founder, InspireIP · Inventor · Innovation Leader
About LivsMed Inc.
Built in Seongnam,
operating worldwide from San Diego
Founded in 2011 in Seongnam, South Korea and now headquartered in San Diego, LivsMed is a medical device company building articulating laparoscopic instruments and surgical robotics for minimally invasive surgery. Its flagship ArtiSential® line of single-use, double-jointed instruments brought wristed dexterity to laparoscopy at a fraction of the cost of full robotic platforms, and is used by surgeons across multiple specialties worldwide.
LivsMed’s portfolio has expanded to include ArtiSential 5 (the first 5mm wristed articulating instrument), ArtiSeal™ (the world’s first 90° articulating vessel sealer), and a new robotic surgery platform with telesurgery capabilities developed in partnership with Sovato. The company has been recognized with the Red Dot Design Award and by the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons. The pace of patent filing is what makes that breadth of innovation defensible.
IP Day 2027
Know an IP innovator who deserves recognition?
Each year we recognise the inventors and IP leaders behind the portfolios that protect what their companies create — including founder-inventors whose contributions often go unmarked. Nominate someone for next year’s list.