Intuitive Hangs Onto Trade Court Win In Stomach Stapler IP Spat

Ethicon LLC can’t revive its trade dispute claiming that several Intuitive Surgical Inc. units infringe patents for medical-grade staplers and cartridges used in gastric bypass and other weight-loss surgeries, the Federal Circuit ruled Friday.

The International Trade Commission correctly determined that Intuitive’s competing SureForm stapler system didn’t infringe one of Ethicon’s US Patent Nos. 9,844,369, and that a claim in another of its patents, US Patent No. 8,479,969, was invalid, Judge Raymond T. Chen wrote in the nonprecedential opinion.

The ruling is the latest development in a broader IP dispute between the companies, which has included patent-infringement ...