Varun Saxena from Fierce Medical Devices recently reported that partners Johnson & Johnson and Google are designing their own robotic surgery devices, which “will compete with Intuitive in general surgery arenas, which include hernia repair and colorectal surgery.”  The Johnson & Johnson endeavor was formed in collaboration with Google’s Verily Life Sciences and will operate under the name Verb Surgical Inc.
Continue Reading As New Players Enter the Robotic Surgery Field, the Legal Implications are Limitless

When filing their complaints, plaintiffs’ lawyers usually take the shotgun approach and throw in as many boilerplate allegations as they can think of.  Oftentimes, many of these claims are easily disposed of by way of a motion either to dismiss or to strike, or later on down the road through dispositive briefing.  But sometimes, certain allegations are made that raise eyebrows and leave even the most experienced litigator scratching her head.  In August of this year, Intuitive Surgical was named as a defendant in a case venued in Miami-Dade County, Florida, involving the da Vinci Si HD Surgical System.  See Seinfeld v. Intuitive Surgical, Inc., No. 2015-018171-CA-01. And this is one of those eyebrow-raising cases.
Continue Reading Can a Complex Medical Device Require Too Much Training?