Intuitive Surgical Wins High-Stakes Antitrust Trial Regarding da Vinci Surgical System

Paul, Weiss achieved a significant victory at trial for surgical robot maker Intuitive Surgical, Inc., in a high-stakes antitrust suit brought by Surgical Instrument Service Company, Inc., (SIS) in the Northern District of California. SIS claimed $140 million in damages—$420 million after trebling—plus attorney fees and expenses. Just before closing arguments, the judge granted our motion for judgment as a matter of law in Intuitive’s favor, discharging the jury and ending the trial.

Intuitive makes the da Vinci surgical system, a revolutionary product that has expanded access to minimally invasive surgical procedures. Illinois-based SIS, a surgical instrument repair company, sued in 2021, claiming that Intuitive had violated Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act by illegally tying the sale and service of its da Vinci systems to hospitals to their purchase of its EndoWrist instruments, surgical tools attached to the da Vinci and used during surgeries.

In its lawsuit, SIS alleged the existence of two distinct antitrust markets, in which it claimed Intuitive had monopoly power: a “foremarket” for minimally invasive soft tissue surgical robots, and an “aftermarket” for repaired and replacement EndoWrists. The complaint claimed that Intuitive’s alleged illegal tying blocks hospitals from extending the life of reusable surgical instruments and has harmed SIS’ surgical instrument repair business.

Paul, Weiss was retained as counsel to Intuitive after summary judgment had been briefed, to reposition the case for trial. The case went to a three-and-half-week jury trial on January 7. The morning of closing arguments, the court ruled that it would give a jury instruction regarding the definition of the aftermarket for repaired and replacement EndoWrists that required SIS to have proven, among other things, that hospitals generally did not know the terms of their contracts with Intuitive and were not able to engage in accurate lifecycle pricing before deciding whether to purchase a da Vinci system. SIS conceded that it had presented no evidence to prove the existence of the alleged aftermarket under this instruction. We moved immediately for judgment as a matter of law on SIS’s claims, which the court granted, thereby ending the trial.

The team was recognized for the trial win in The American Lawyer’s “Litigation Daily” column on January 31.

The Paul, Weiss team includes litigation partners Ken Gallo, William Michael, Paul Brachman, Crystal Parker, Joshua Hill, Lina Dagnew and Kannon Shanmugam and counsel Robert O'Loughlin, Darren Johnson and Daniel Crane.