Opinion ID: 211260
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: U.S. Surgical's VERSAPORTTM PLUS Trocar

Text: 15 The accused device, depicted below, is also a trocar used for laparoscopic surgery that avoids the problems of cupping and tearing described in the '553 patent. According to U.S. Surgical's expert, the essential features of the device are: (i) a flexible composite material with an orifice that is blue in color called the blue valve; (ii) a hard plastic hemisphere called a gimbal that is attached to the blue valve at its outermost portions; and (iii) a gasket that provides a seal with the rotating gimbal and the housing called the interface seal. (J.A. 284.) The gimbal responds to offaxis forces from an instrument by rotating as a ball-in-socket joint. See also Applied Opinion, slip op. at 7-8 (describing the accused U.S. Surgical VERSAPORTTM PLUS trocar products). NOTE: OPINION CONTAINING TABLE OR OTHER DATA THAT IS NOT VIEWABLE