Briefly, ISRG makes equipment for robotic assisted surgical procedures, and the software, spare parts, scheduled replacement parts, with follow on contracts for software upgrades, maintenance and service. They offer hospitals a comprehensive contract for everything, and hold most of the patents. Warren Buffett often talks about huge moats for protection of stock value.

How's this for a moat: if you and I had unlimited financial resources, and the medical, scientific, and engineering expertise to create a better product and range of services at a lower price, how many years would it take to develop? When we were ready after these efforts and the appropriate medical and legal wrangling we applied for patents and FDA approval how long would that take to accomplish? So even with all the resources in the universe I think that it would take an eternity trying to catch up, and at a tremendous expense.

Intuitive Surgical is still inventing, expanding, selling, patenting and increasing the types of approved procedures, all the while adding surgical units in hospitals around the world to it's customer base. I have no idea where the ceiling for this stock is but we are not there yet.

Those of you who are new to BloggingStocks can check out my other stories and read Chasing Value or Serious Money to find more potential opportunities and verify my track record as well.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm.