Opinion · Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Insulet Corp. v. Eoflow, Co. Ltd.
Insulet Corp. v. Eoflow, Co., No. 25-1807, UP11332940 (Fed. Cir. May 28, 2026)
- Type
- Opinion
- Court
- Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- Jurisdiction
- Federal
- Date
- 2026-05-28
- Topic
- litigation
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 1 Filed: 05/28/2026 United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ______________________ INSULET CORP., Plaintiff-Appellee v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD., EOFLOW, INC., JESSE J. KIM, Defendants-Appellants ______________________ 2025-1807 ______________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts in No. 1:23-cv-11780-FDS, Judge F. Dennis Saylor, IV. ______________________ Decided: May 28, 2026 ______________________ WILLIAM M.
Citator
UpLaw has not yet analyzed Insulet Corp. v. Eoflow, Co. Ltd.. The absence of a flag is not a finding that it is good law.
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 1 Filed: 05/28/2026
United States Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit
______________________
INSULET CORP.,
Plaintiff-Appellee
v.
EOFLOW, CO. LTD., EOFLOW, INC., JESSE J. KIM,
Defendants-Appellants
______________________
2025-1807
______________________
Appeal from the United States District Court for the
District of Massachusetts in No. 1:23-cv-11780-FDS, Judge
F. Dennis Saylor, IV.
______________________
Decided: May 28, 2026
______________________
WILLIAM M. JAY, Goodwin Procter LLP, Washington,
DC, argued for plaintiff-appellee. Also represented by
MATTHEW GINTHER; ROBERT CARROLL, WILLIAM EVANS,
ROBERT FREDERICKSON, III, ALEXANDRA LU, Boston, MA;
ALEXANDRA D. VALENTI, New York, NY.
ELIZABETH PRELOGAR, Cooley LLP, Washington, DC,
argued for defendants-appellants. Also represented by
ELIZABETH M. FLANAGAN, Minneapolis, MN; LOWELL D.
MEAD, Palo Alto, CA.
______________________
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 2 Filed: 05/28/2026
2 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD.
Before DYK, PROST, and REYNA, Circuit Judges.
Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge DYK.
Dissenting opinion filed by Circuit Judge PROST.
DYK, Circuit Judge.
Insulet Corporation (“Insulet”) sued EOFlow, Co. Ltd.,
EOFlow, Inc., and its chief executive officer and major
stockholder Jesse Kim (collectively, “EOFlow” unless oth-
erwise noted) for trade secret misappropriation under the
Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”) and for patent infringe-
ment. The district court bifurcated Insulet’s trade secret
misappropriation claim from the patent claims.
EOFlow argued that the statute of limitations had ex-
pired for Insulet’s trade secret misappropriation claim.
The district court denied both parties’ summary judgment
motions on the limitations issue. The case proceeded to a
jury trial on the DTSA claim. The jury found that EOFlow
misappropriated four Insulet trade secrets and that In-
sulet’s claim was not time-barred for any of the misappro-
priated trade secrets and awarded damages. The district
court denied EOFlow’s posttrial judgment as a matter of
law (“JMOL”) motion; entered judgment awarding Insulet
damages; held both EOFlow entities and Mr. Kim jointly
and severally liable for the damages; and issued a perma-
nent injunction. After trial, the patent claims were dis-
missed without prejudice. EOFlow appeals.
We conclude that we have jurisdiction because the pa-
tent claims were effectively dismissed with prejudice. On
the merits, we determine that EOFlow was entitled to
JMOL on Insulet’s DTSA claim because the statute of lim-
itations had expired before Insulet brought suit. We re-
verse.
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 3 Filed: 05/28/2026
INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 3
BACKGROUND
I
The following summary is based on the undisputed tes-
timony at trial, unless otherwise noted. Insulet is a medi-
cal-device manufacturer that makes an adhesive, wearable
insulin patch pump called the Omnipod®, which was first
marketed in 2005. After its initial launch, Insulet contin-
ued to work on next-generation versions of the Omnipod,
including the Omnipod Eros. Insulet marketed the Om-
nipod Eros beginning in 2011.
EOFlow also developed an adhesive, wearable insulin
patch pump called the EOPatch®. EOFlow never mar-
keted the first-generation EOPatch, and this patch pump
was not alleged to have been developed through trade se-
cret misappropriation. However, Insulet alleged trade se-
cret misappropriation, beginning in 2018, in connection
with EOFlow’s efforts to develop a second-generation patch
pump, known as the EOPatch 2. This pump was later mar-
keted in Europe and South Korea.
EOFlow’s misappropriation was alleged to have oc-
curred when EOFlow hired several former Insulet employ-
ees to help develop and commercialize the EOPatch 2.
These former employees had signed confidentiality and
non-disclosure agreements at Insulet. One of the former
Insulet employees, Steve DiIanni, the Director of Mechan-
ical Engineering at Insulet, was allegedly “entrusted with
details of every aspect of the research and development ef-
forts to create the world’s first insulin patch pump,”
J.A. 321 ¶ 40, and possessed “detailed technical infor-
mation about Insulet’s Omnipod product, including but not
limited to product specifications, material compositions,
coating materials, . . . operational software requirements
and details, dimensional tolerances, . . . and other product
and manufacturing details.” J.A. 322 ¶ 41.
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 4 Filed: 05/28/2026
4 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD.
Mr. DiIanni provided assistance to EOFlow in develop-
ing a second-generation patch pump. Between March and
May 2018, Mr. DiIanni shared computer-aided design
(CAD) files for the Omnipod Eros, information about the
design and manufacture of the Omnipod’s soft cannula,
and information regarding the Omnipod’s occlusion-detec-
tion algorithm with EOFlow. Insulet alleges that these dis-
closures, among others, constituted trade secret
misappropriation. 1
II
On August 3, 2023, Insulet brought suit against
EOFlow in the District of Massachusetts asserting trade
secret misappropriation under the DTSA and patent in-
fringement. Insulet moved for a preliminary injunction
against EOFlow on the DTSA claim. The district court
granted the preliminary injunction and bifurcated the
DTSA claim and patent claims. We reversed the district
court’s grant of preliminary injunction. Insulet Corp.
v. EOFlow, Co. (“Insulet I”), 104 F.4th 873
(Fed. Cir. June 17, 2024). We concluded that the district court “fail[ed] to address the statute of limitations,” failed to conduct “a tai- lored analysis as to what specific information actually con- stituted a trade secret,” and “abused its discretion in reaching its findings as to irreparable harm and the public interest.” Insulet I,104 F.4th at 883
.
On remand, EOFlow and Insulet both moved for sum-
mary judgment on the statute of limitations issue. Under
the DTSA, the statute of limitations expires “3 years after
1 Insulet also alleged that former Insulet employees
Luis Malave and Ian Welsford misappropriated Insulet’s
trade secrets in the development of the EOPatch 2. As each
of these alleged disclosures occurred after Mr. DiIanni’s in-
itial disclosures to EOFlow, none is relevant to the statute
of limitations issue.
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 5 Filed: 05/28/2026
INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 5
the date on which the misappropriation with respect to
which the action would relate is discovered or by the exer-
cise of reasonable diligence should have been discovered.
For purposes of this subsection, a continuing misappropri-
ation constitutes a single claim of misappropriation.”
18 U.S.C. § 1836
(d). EOFlow contended that the DTSA should be interpreted to incorporate an inquiry-notice standard and that Insulet’s claim was time-barred as a matter of law under that standard. Insulet, in turn, argued that the Supreme Court’s decision in Merck & Co. v. Reyn- olds,559 U.S. 633
(2010), had rejected an inquiry-notice
standard for a similar statute; that the Merck discovery
standard applied; and that its claim was not time-barred
as a matter of law under that standard. The district court
agreed with Insulet that the Merck standard applied, but
concluded there were “material factual disputes concerning
the time at which a reasonably diligent company should
have discovered the alleged misappropriation” under the
Merck standard and denied both summary judgment mo-
tions. J.A. 23. At trial, both parties presented evidence on
the statute of limitations issue.
The jury found EOFlow misappropriated four of In-
sulet’s trade secrets: (1) the CAD files for the Omnipod;
(2) the design and manufacturing process for the Omnipod
soft cannula; (3) the design history file for the Omnipod
Eros; and (4) the occlusion-detection algorithm for the Om-
nipod. The jury also found that, for each asserted trade
secret, Insulet’s claim was not barred by the statute of lim-
itations; and that EOFlow, Co. Ltd. and Mr. Kim willfully
and maliciously misappropriated three of the trade secrets
(the CAD files, occlusion-detection algorithm, and design
history file). The jury awarded Insulet $170,000,015 in
compensatory damages and $282,000,005 in exemplary
damages. After the verdict, on January 3, 2025, the district
court dismissed Insulet’s patent claims “without preju-
dice.” J.A. 21412.
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 6 Filed: 05/28/2026
6 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD.
EOFlow moved for JMOL on the DTSA claim on multi-
ple grounds, including that Insulet’s DTSA claim was time-
barred under both the inquiry notice and Merck standards.
The district court denied EOFlow’s motion.
Insulet requested a permanent injunction. EOFlow ar-
gued that the permanent injunction was entirely duplica-
tive of the jury’s damages award because Insulet’s damages
model was based on enjoined future sales of EOPatch 2.
The district court agreed that the injunction provided relief
that overlapped significantly with the jury’s damages
award and reduced the damages award to $25.8 million in
compensatory damages and $33.6 million in exemplary
damages to prevent double recovery. On April 24, 2025,
the district court entered judgment and a permanent in-
junction enjoining EOFlow’s disclosure and use of the trade
secrets, enjoining the commercialization of “any product
that was designed, developed, or manufactured, in whole
or in part, using or relying on the Trade Secrets, anywhere
in the world,” J.A. 111, and ordered EOFlow to assign cer-
tain patent applications to Insulet.
EOFlow timely appealed to our court. Insulet then ap-
pealed the judgment and injunction to the First Circuit and
moved to transfer this appeal to the First Circuit. 2 On July
7, 2025, we denied Insulet’s motion to transfer and re-
quested that the parties address our jurisdiction in their
merits briefs.
2 In the First Circuit, Insulet conditionally cross-ap-
pealed the district court’s reduction of damages if the deci-
sion in EOFlow’s appeal “narrowed or vacated the
injunction while leaving any portion of the liability verdict
in place.” Appellee’s Br. 70 n.26. As we reverse the liabil-
ity judgment, Insulet’s First Circuit appeal is moot.
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 7 Filed: 05/28/2026
INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 7
DISCUSSION
I
We first consider whether we have jurisdiction.
28 U.S.C. § 1295
(a)(1) grants this court exclusive jurisdic- tion “in any civil action arising under . . . any act of Con- gress relating to patents.” Our jurisdiction thus “depends on whether the plaintiff’s complaint as amended raises pa- tent law issues.” Chamberlain Grp., Inc. v. Skylink Techs., Inc.,381 F.3d 1178, 1189
(Fed. Cir. 2004). A dismissal with prejudice of patent claims does not deprive our court of jurisdiction, as dismissals with prejudice “are adjudica- tions on the merits, and not constructive amendments to the complaint.”Id.
at 1189–90. Whether a dismissal is with prejudice “is functional, rather than semantic.”Id. at 1190
.
Normally, an amendment to a complaint that dis-
misses patent claims without prejudice will divest this
court of its jurisdiction over the appeal. Krauser v. BioHo-
rizons, Inc., 753 F.3d 1263, 1269
(Fed. Cir. 2014); see also Royal Canin U. S. A., Inc. v. Wullschleger,604 U.S. 22, 34
(2025) (describing how “an amendment can wipe the juris- dictional slate clean”). However, a dismissal nominally without prejudice may effectively be a dismissal with prej- udice if the statute of limitations has run. See Hilton Int’l Co. v. Union de Trabajadores de la Industria Gastronom- ica,833 F.2d 10, 11
(1st Cir. 1987) (“The weight of author- ity . . . is that dismissal . . . even though labelled ‘without prejudice,’ is, in fact, with prejudice if the statute of limita- tions has run.”); see also Chamberlain,381 F.3d at 1190
.
EOFlow argues that Insulet’s voluntary dismissal of its
patent infringement claims (and the amendment to its
complaint to delete the patent claims) functioned as a dis-
missal with prejudice because refiling of the claims would
be barred by the six-year statute of limitations, 35 U.S.C. § 286
. In particular, EOFlow points out that the complaint alleged infringement occurring in June 2018, when Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 8 Filed: 05/28/2026 8 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. “EOFlow imported at least one device for display at the 2018 ADA meeting,” J.A. 1132 ¶ 134, and that this claim was barred by the six-year limitations period at the time of the dismissal, see35 U.S.C. § 286
. We agree with EOFlow. Insulet is barred from “refiling of the same claim” of patent infringement because the statute of limitations expired in June 2024 with respect to acts of infringement in June 2018, and the dismissals occurred on January 3, 2025, more than six years later. See Semtek Int’l Inc. v. Lockheed Martin Corp.,531 U.S. 497, 506
(2001) (equating an “adju-
dication upon the merits” to a dismissal where refiling is
barred).
Insulet nonetheless argues that the dismissal instead
functions as a dismissal without prejudice. First, it argues
that section 286 does not bar Insulet from bringing suit re-
lated to acts of infringement committed more than six
years prior to filing suit; it merely prevents recovery for
such acts. For present purposes, this is a distinction with-
out a difference. A dismissal is with prejudice if the “dis-
missal[ ] altered the legal positions of [the parties] vis-à-vis
the dismissed claim.” Chamberlain, 381 F.3d at 1190
. Un-
der either view of the statute, “the legal positions” of the
parties were altered by the dismissal.
Second, Insulet argues that in addition to the alleged
act of importation from 2018, it “alleged multiple addi-
tional acts of importation of the pirated device . . . occur-
ring in 2022 at the earliest.” Appellee’s Br. 29. But, as
both concurring opinions for the en banc court in Arellano
v. McDonough recognized, ongoing patent infringement
“‘comprises a “series of discrete infringing acts,” each of
which is a distinct harm giving rise to an independent
claim for relief that starts a new limitations period.’”
1 F.4th 1059, 1091
(Fed. Cir. 2021) (en banc) (Dyk, J., con- curring) (quoting Arellano,1 F.4th at 1070
(Chen, J., con- curring) (quoting Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc.,571 U.S. 663
, 671–72 (2014)) (emphasis in original)). Re-
gardless of whether Insulet may still file patent
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 9 Filed: 05/28/2026
INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 9
infringement claims for some alleged acts of infringement,
the statute of limitations had expired with respect to
EOFlow’s alleged June 2018 infringement.
Finally, Insulet argues that the cases establishing that
a dismissal is with prejudice when the statute of limita-
tions has run only apply to involuntary dismissals, not vol-
untary dismissals. But it is well-established that this is
also “clearly the rule if the dismissal is voluntary” and “any
other result . . . would be most unfair.” Hilton, 833 F.2d at 11
. Because Insulet could not refile suit predicated on
this alleged act of infringement, the dismissal of its patent
claims, at least in part, functioned as a dismissal with prej-
udice. We therefore have jurisdiction.
II
We next address the statute of limitations issue. We
review the district court’s denial of EOFlow’s JMOL motion
on statute-of-limitations grounds de novo. Proveris Sci.
Corp. v. Innovasystems, Inc., 536 F.3d 1256
, 1266–67 (Fed. Cir. 2008) (citing Hochen v. Bobst Grp., Inc.,290 F.3d 446, 453
(1st Cir. 2002)).
The statute of limitations for federal trade secret mis-
appropriation claims runs “3 years after the date on which
the misappropriation with respect to which the action
would relate is discovered or by the exercise of reasonable
diligence should have been discovered. For purposes of this
subsection, a continuing misappropriation constitutes a
single claim of misappropriation.” 18 U.S.C. § 1836
(d).
EOFlow argues that the so-called inquiry-notice stand-
ard applies and that inquiry-notice standard begins the
limitations period “‘when the first event occurs that would
prompt a reasonable person to inquire into a possible in-
jury at the hands of the defendant.’” Appellants’ Br. 28
(quoting Epstein v. C.R. Bard, Inc., 460 F.3d 183
, 187–88
(1st Cir. 2006) (applying Massachusetts law)). Insulet ar-
gues that (1) inquiry notice is not the proper standard
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 10 Filed: 05/28/2026
10 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD.
because, in Merck, the Supreme Court rejected inquiry no-
tice in construing the discovery standard under a similar
statute; and (2) the same discovery standard discussed in
Merck should apply to the DTSA. Under the Merck stand-
ard, the statute of limitations begins whenever a plaintiff
did discover or should have discovered the facts underlying
its cause of action, whereas under the inquiry-notice stand-
ard, the statute of limitations begins to run when the plain-
tiff or a reasonably diligent plaintiff would have begun an
investigation that would allow it to discover these facts.
Merck, 559 U.S. at 651–53.
As the district court concluded, the factual circum-
stances present here demonstrated that Insulet “plainly
had at least a cause for concern that defendants had en-
gaged in prohibited conduct by early 2019,” before the crit-
ical date of August 3, 2020 (three years before Insulet filed
its complaint) (“critical date”), J.A. 21, and that if the in-
quiry-notice standard applied, “then defendants would al-
most certainly be entitled to summary judgment on the
trade secret claim.” J.A. 46. Insulet disputes the district
court’s apparent conclusion that it was on inquiry notice
before the critical date. The parties also disagree as to
whether, applying the Merck standard, substantial evi-
dence supported the jury’s verdict.
We need not decide whether EOFlow’s proposed in-
quiry-notice standard or Insulet’s proposed Merck stand-
ard applies. We conclude that even under the more
demanding Merck standard, the statute of limitations ex-
pired before Insulet filed its complaint because the undis-
puted evidence shows that Insulet knew or should have
known before the critical date the facts it needed to suffi-
ciently plead a trade secret misappropriation claim against
EOFlow. In doing so, we do not, as the dissent suggests,
“conflate [our] application of the discovery rule with the in-
quiry-notice standard,” Dissent 1, but apply the more rig-
orous Merck standard.
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 11 Filed: 05/28/2026
INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 11
III
Before turning to the facts of the present case, we must
consider the applicable standard for pleading a claim for
trade secret misappropriation under the DTSA. EOFlow
argues that a claim for trade secret misappropriation un-
der the DTSA may be properly pled and proven through
factual allegations demonstrating the combination of the
defendants’ access to the trade secret and the similarity of
the trade secret to the defendant’s design. 3 We agree.
Cases addressing the standards for pleading and proof
of misappropriation under the DTSA establish that, to
prove a trade secret misappropriation claim, “[a] plaintiff
may rely on circumstantial evidence showing access to the
trade secrets and similarities between those secrets and
the accused product.” 4 Harbor Bus. Compliance Corp.
v. Firstbase.io, Inc., 152 F.4th 516
, 530 (3d Cir. 2025) (ap- plying the DTSA) (citing Oakwood Laboratories, Inc. v. Thanoo,999 F.3d 892
, 912 n.19 (3d Cir. 2021) (applying
the DTSA)). Interpretations of the Uniform Trade Secret
Act (“UTSA”) also inform our interpretation of the DTSA.
When it enacted the DTSA, “Congress was aware of the role
and limitations of the UTSA as model legislation for the
states, and it recognized the DTSA and the UTSA as
3 Even in the absence of access and similarity, it may
be the case that the statute of limitations has expired on a
trade secret claim because the plaintiff would otherwise
have knowledge of facts that is sufficient to state a claim,
for example, direct knowledge of misappropriation. See
Oakwood Lab’ys v. Thanoo, 999 F.3d 892
, 912 n.19 (3d Cir.
2021). That situation is not present here.
4 Contrary to the dissent, cases that address the
standard of proof for a trade secret misappropriation claim
rather than the pleading standard for a trade secret mis-
appropriation claim are directly relevant to defining the el-
ements of the cause of action.
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 12 Filed: 05/28/2026
12 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD.
similar.” Attia v. Google LLC, 983 F.3d 420, 425
(9th Cir. 2020). One House report noted that the limitations period of the DTSA is “identical to the limitations period of the UTSA.” H.R. Rep. No. 114-529, at 13 (2016). Given that the DTSA was enacted in light of the UTSA and, in rele- vant respect, uses virtually identical language, 5 it is appro- priate to consider cases interpreting the UTSA (or the UTSA’s statute of limitations provision) in interpreting the DTSA. See George v. McDonough,596 U.S. 740, 746
(2022)
(“Where Congress employs a term of art obviously trans-
planted from another legal source, it brings the old soil
with it.” (internal quotation marks omitted)).
Circuits analyzing the UTSA statute of limitations
have applied the same access-plus-similarity framework.
See Seatrax, Inc. v. Sonbeck Int’l, Inc., 200 F.3d 358, 365
(5th Cir. 2000) (applying Texas law); Heraeus Med. GmbH v. Esschem, Inc.,927 F.3d 727
, 735–36 (3d Cir. 2019) (ap- plying Pennsylvania law); Sokol Crystal Prods., Inc. v. DSC Commc’ns Corp.,15 F.3d 1427, 1430
(7th Cir. 1994)
(applying Wisconsin law). 6 For example, in Seatrax, a
5 The DTSA differs from the UTSA statute of limita-
tions in that a suit must be brought within 3 years after
“the misappropriation with respect to which the action
would relate is discovered or by the exercise of reasonable
diligence should have been discovered.” 18 U.S.C. § 1836
(d) (emphasis added). The underscored language
does not appear in the UTSA.
6 The dissent suggests that Sokol somehow “under-
mines” the access-plus-similarity framework. Dissent 5.
But the reasoning of Sokol is consistent with and supports
this standard. There, “the jury apparently inferred from
the fact that DSC [the defendant] had access to Sokol’s [the
plaintiff’s] confidential information and from the similarity
between the [plaintiff’s and defendant’s] devices” that mis-
appropriation had occurred. Sokol, 15 F.3d at 1429
; see Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 13 Filed: 05/28/2026 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 13 crane manufacturer knew that individuals who were “given access to technical information, manuals, service bulletins, computer software and . . . manufacturer draw- ings” formed another company to sell crane parts that were similar to the trade-secret owner’s designs. Seatrax, 200 F.3d at 362–63. The Fifth Circuit held that these events “put [the trade secret owner] on notice of possible misappropriation,” id. at 365, and therefore the trade se- cret owner’s claim was time-barred as a matter of law be- cause it brought suit more than “three years after the misappropriation[ ] is discovered or by the exercise of due diligence should have been discovered,” id. at 364 (empha- sis removed) (quotingTex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. § 16.010
(a)). Further, our court has held that if a plaintiff alsoid. at 1430
(“Sokol did not know that DSC was misus- ing (and therefore misappropriating) its trade secret until DSC sold an ECS–3 system (containing a VCXO that re- sembled Sokol’s) to a third party.”);id. at 1432
(holding
that “once the jury concluded that (1) DSC had access to
Sokol’s trade secrets, and (2) DSC’s product was similar to
Sokol’s, it was entirely reasonable for it to infer that DSC
used Sokol’s trade secret”).
The question was whether the plaintiff had knowledge
that a similar device was being sold (and thus misappro-
priated) before the critical date. While the defendant sent
sample components (VCXO boards) to the plaintiff before
the critical date, the plaintiff did not then know that the
defendant would sell a similar device containing the VCXO
boards, i.e., it did not “know the use to which these boards
were going to be put.” Id. at 1430
. The plaintiff did not have that knowledge of misappropriation until it learned (after the critical date) that the defendant “sold [a similar product] (containing a VCXO that resembled Sokol’s) to a third party.”Id.
Sokol directly supports the access-plus- similarity framework for pleading and proving trade secret misappropriation claims. Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 14 Filed: 05/28/2026 14 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. has knowledge that (1) the alleged misappropriator has ac- cess to the alleged trade secrets through a former employee of the trade secret owner and (2) there is similarity be- tween the trade secrets and the alleged misappropriator’s competing product, then the plaintiff possesses sufficient facts to state a claim for trade secret misappropriation. See Leggett & Platt, Inc. v. Hickory Springs Mfg. Co.,285 F.3d 1353, 1361
(Fed. Cir. 2002) (applying Illinois law).
Here, in its brief, Insulet argued that the access-plus-
similarity test does not apply and that the limitations pe-
riod began to run only when it acquired detailed and spe-
cific knowledge of the misappropriation. For example, it
argued that it could not ascertain the “nominal dimen-
sions” of the designs and prototypes of the EOPatch from
EOFlow’s displays at trade shows, presentations to Insulet,
and public disclosures. Dkt. No. 60 at 1 (citing J.A. 21035).
In this respect, Insulet is mistaken. Because the standard
is substantial similarity, detailed knowledge of all of the
relevant facts underlying the misappropriation is not re-
quired. Knowledge of such details as the nominal dimen-
sions of EOPatch 2 is unnecessary to plead a trade secret
misappropriation claim. Significantly, despite the argu-
ments in its brief, Insulet agreed at oral argument that
knowledge of facts demonstrating access and similarity are
sufficient to plead a trade secret misappropriation claim.
Oral Arg. at 28:23-29:18. The relevant question is ulti-
mately whether Insulet had sufficient knowledge to state a
claim for trade secret misappropriation before the critical
date, not whether it had sufficient evidence to prove mis-
appropriation of its trade secrets.
IV
The next question is whether, in order to trigger the
running of the statute of limitations, the plaintiff must
have discovered (or should have discovered) the misappro-
priation of each alleged trade secret or if it is sufficient that
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 15 Filed: 05/28/2026
INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 15
it discovered (or should have discovered) misappropriation
of a single trade secret.
Over EOFlow’s objection, the jury was instructed that
it must “separately consider the statute of limitations de-
fense as to each of [the] trade secrets,” J.A. 21392; see also
J.A.19977–78, J.A. 130, 6:1–12, J.A. 184, 60:16–22. We
have recognized, however, that whether a party is entitled
to JMOL “does not depend on how the jury was instructed.”
Harris Corp. v. Ericsson Inc., 417 F.3d 1241, 1252
(Fed. Cir. 2005). The inquiry is whether “under the con-
trolling law,” the defendant is entitled to JMOL. Fed. R.
Civ. Proc. 50(a)(1)(B).
To resolve this dispute, we must interpret the DTSA’s
provision that “[f]or purposes of this subsection [the statute
of limitations], a continuing misappropriation constitutes
a single claim of misappropriation.” 18 U.S.C. § 1836
(d).
This provision is essentially copied from a provision in the
UTSA statute of limitations—“[f]or the purposes of this sec-
tion, a continuing misappropriation constitutes a single
claim.” Uniform Trade Secrets Act § 6 (amended 1985)
(Nat’l Conf. of Comm’rs on Unif. State L. 1985) (“1985
UTSA”). While there is no First Circuit authority on this
issue, given the relevant provisions of the DTSA and the
UTSA are substantively identical, we consider the history
of the UTSA and cases decided under the UTSA.
Before the UTSA, there was a “conflict of authority as
to whether trade secret misappropriation is a continuing
wrong.” 1985 UTSA, § 6 cmt. Some courts, most notably
the D.C. Circuit in Underwater Storage, Inc. v. U.S. Rubber
Co., 371 F.2d 950
(D.C. Cir. 1966), concluded that each act of trade secret misappropriation is a distinct wrong with a separate limitations period because trade secrets are “val- uable property” and, as such, “a cause of action for each invasion of the plaintiff's interest arose at the time of that invasion.” 371 F.2d at 954–55. “Underlying this theory is the concept that a trade secret is in the nature of property, Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 16 Filed: 05/28/2026 16 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. which is damaged or destroyed by the adverse use.” Mon- olith Portland Midwest Co. v. Kaiser Aluminum & Chem. Corp.,407 F.2d 288, 293
(9th Cir. 1969) (discussing Under- water Storage). Other courts, like the Ninth Circuit in Monolith, did not “treat trade secrets as if they were prop- erty,” and instead determined that the protected interest in a trade secret misappropriation claim was “the relation- ship between the parties at the time the secret is disclosed.” Monolith,407 F.2d at 293
. Because “[t]he fabric of the re- lationship once rent is not torn anew with each added use or disclosure, although the damage suffered may thereby be aggravated,” as the court in Monolith reasoned, “[t]he cause of action arises but once” and is subject to a single limitations period.Id.
The comments to the UTSA make clear that the UTSA’s statute of limitations specifically follows Monolith and “rejects a continuing wrong approach.” 1985 UTSA, § 6 cmt. Likewise, under the DTSA statute of limitations, “a continuing misappropriation constitutes a single claim of misappropriation.”18 U.S.C. § 1836
(d). This means that “the first discovered (or discoverable) misappropria- tion of a trade secret commences the limitation period, placing the focus . . . on the breach of the relationship be- tween the parties at the time the secret is disclosed.” Kehoe Component Sales Inc. v. Best Lighting Prods., Inc.,796 F.3d 576, 583
(6th Cir. 2015) (omission in original) (ci-
tation omitted) (applying Ohio law).
A variety of cases in California state and federal courts
have interpreted this provision to mean that “[w]hen a
plaintiff brings suit against an individual defendant for
separate misappropriations of related trade secrets, or for
multiple misappropriations of a single secret, the date of
accrual is the date of the initial misappropriation.” HiRel
Connectors, Inc. v. United States, 465 F. Supp. 2d 984, 988
(C.D. Cal. 2005) (applying California law). California’s ap- proach, which is the most well-developed, appears to have originated in federal district court cases, most notably in Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 17 Filed: 05/28/2026 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 17 Intermedics, Inc. v. Ventritex, Inc.,822 F. Supp. 634
(N.D. Cal. 1993) (applying California law). The court in Inter- medics held that “when the statute of limitations begins to run on some of a plaintiff’s trade secret claims against given defendants, the statute also begins to run at that same time as to other trade secret claims against those same defendants . . . at least when the plaintiff shared all the trade secrets with defendants during the same period and in connection with the same relationships and when the trade secrets concern related matter.”822 F. Supp. at 657
; see also Forcier v. Microsoft Corp.,123 F. Supp. 2d 520
, 525–26 (N.D. Cal. 2000) (applying California law); HiRel,465 F.Supp.2d at 988
. This approach “impose[s] on plaintiffs a responsibility to take prompt and assertive cor- rective action with respect to all of plaintiffs’ interests whenever plaintiffs detect a fracture in a once confidential relationship.” Intermedics,822 F. Supp. at 654
.
California state appellate courts have since approved
the Intermedics approach to determine if related trade se-
crets relate to the same claim of misappropriation, most ex-
plicitly in MGA Ent., Inc. v. Mattel, Inc., 254 Cal. Rptr. 3d 314
(Cal. Ct. App. 2019). There, the court rejected the plaintiff’s attempt to limit the accrual of its trade secrets claim to two specific trade secrets that were displayed at a particular toy fair, which the court described as a “compart- mentalization of its suspicion of wrongdoing.” MGA, 254 Cal. Rptr. 3d at 321. It concluded that the statute of limitations had run against all 114 of plaintiff’s alleged misappropriations, which involved multiple trade secrets, once the plaintiff had notice of an initial misappropriation, as taking a different approach would allow the plaintiff to “don blinders to avoid the accrual of the statute of limita- tion” for related acts of misappropriation. Id. at 320–21; see also Glue-Fold, Inc. v. Slautterback Corp.,98 Cal. Rptr. 2d 661, 666
(Cal. Ct. App. 2000) (applying California law) (“We agree with the federal court which stated that ‘California law assumes that once a plaintiff knows or Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 18 Filed: 05/28/2026 18 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. should know that a particular defendant cannot be trusted with one secret, it is unreasonable for that plaintiff simply to assume that that defendant can be trusted to protect other secrets.’” (quoting Intermedics,822 F. Supp. at 654
)).
The Sixth Circuit’s opinion in B&P Littleford, LLC
v. Prescott Machinery, LLC, No. 20-1449, 2021 WL 3732313
(6th Cir. 2021) (nonprecedential), is the only au- thority that Insulet cites in support of its trade-secret-by- trade-secret statute of limitations analysis. But that case recognizes the same “controlling principle consistent with the purposes of the statutory accrual rule” as Intermedics. B&P Littleford,2021 WL 3732313
, at *6 (quoting Gognat v. Ellsworth,259 P.3d 497, 502
(Colo. 2011) (applying Col- orado law)). There, to discern whether trade secrets should be subject to separate statute of limitations analyses, the Sixth Circuit described how a court “might ask whether the same relationship has been ruptured in the same way, looking, for example, at who made the disclosure, to whom the disclosure was made, and the nature, timing, and rea- sons for the disclosure.”Id.
(citing Gognat,259 P.3d at 503
). While B&P Littleford characterized the inquiry to
be whether the alleged trade secrets should be considered
to be a single trade secret for limitations purposes, this is
the substantially same test that the Intermedics court ar-
ticulated. As such, there is no material difference in the
controlling law on this issue that is advanced by either
party.
Applying the Ohio Uniform Trade Secrets Act’s discov-
ery rule in Maatuk v. Emerson Electric, Inc., 781 F. App’x 1002
, 1005 (Fed. Cir. 2019) (nonprecedential), we reached a similar conclusion. There, the plaintiff unsuccessfully brought a trade secret misappropriation suit against cer- tain parties stemming from an alleged breach of a confiden- tial relationship between the plaintiff and those parties. Maatuk, 781 F. App’x at 1003–04. Over a decade later, the plaintiff again alleged trade secret misappropriation stem- ming from the same breach of confidential relationship, but Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 19 Filed: 05/28/2026 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 19 this time asserted that different trade secrets had been misappropriated.Id. at 1004
. We agreed with the district court that the plaintiff’s misappropriation claim was time- barred because the plaintiff was “aware of a breach of a confidential relationship” when he filed his original lawsuit sixteen years prior.Id. at 1005
. Differentiating Amalga- mated Indus. Ltd. v. Tressa, Inc.,69 F. App’x 255
(6th Cir. 2003) (nonprecedential), we held that “where a party al- leges misappropriation of different trade secrets years af- ter discovery of the breach of confidentiality, the claim is barred by the statute of limitations . . . .”Id.
Here, each of the factors outlined in Intermedics and B&P Littleford points toward a single accrual date for In- sulet’s trade secret misappropriation claim against EOFlow. While serving as EOFlow’s consultant between March and May 2018, Mr. DiIanni, in a single course of al- leged misappropriation, disclosed each asserted trade se- cret to EOFlow for the purpose of designing an improved EOPatch 2. EOFlow’s alleged misappropriations of the as- serted trade secrets thus constitute a single claim of mis- appropriation and, therefore, are subject to the same statute of limitations analysis. See Gognat,259 P.3d at 504
(concluding that a body of information that was
“shared with the same person, in substantially the same
time period, as part of the same joint commercial venture”
was subject to a single statute of limitations analysis).
V
With these principles in mind, we must determine
whether, under the access-plus-similarity standard and
Merck discovery standard, Insulet knew or should have
known of facts sufficient to plead access and similarity as
to one of the asserted trade secrets before the critical date.
This is a legal question with underlying fact issues. See
Merck, 559 U.S. at 649, 652; see also Epstein, 460 F.3d
at 188–89 (dismissing trade secret misappropriation claim
on motion to dismiss as time-barred when parties only
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 20 Filed: 05/28/2026
20 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD.
disputed “legal significance” of allegations); Skwira
v. United States, 344 F.3d 64, 72
(1st Cir. 2003) (explaining that when parties “only disagree over the legal significance of [facts] . . . the parties’ dispute ‘focuses on pure (or nearly pure) questions of law [and] engenders de novo review’” (quoting Gonzalez v. United States,284 F.3d 281, 287
(1st Cir. 2002)).
The district court instructed the jury that, once
EOFlow proved misappropriation first occurred outside the
limitations period, Insulet had the burden of proof to estab-
lish that it did not discover, or by the exercise of reasonable
diligence could not discover, the misappropriation before
the critical date. J.A. 21392. Neither party challenges this
instruction on appeal, or that the first misappropriation of
the CAD files, soft cannula, and occlusion-detection algo-
rithm trade secrets occurred outside the limitations pe-
riod, 7 so we proceed with the assumption that Insulet has
the burden of proof on the discovery issue.
EOFlow points to Insulet’s August 3, 2023, complaint
and argues that it “relied heavily on the same combination
of access plus similarity that was fully available to Insulet”
before the critical date. Appellants’ Br. 36 (citing J.A. 306–
367 ¶¶ 6–8, 40–42). We agree that we may appropriately
consider the allegations in Insulet’s original complaint to
determine what knowledge was necessary to sufficiently al-
lege trade secret misappropriation.
A. Access to Trade Secrets
As to access, Insulet’s complaint alleged that its former
employee Steve DiIanni was “entrusted with details of
7 As discussed below, since we conclude that the
CAD-files trade secret is part of the design history file, we
agree with EOFlow that it proved that the first misappro-
priation of the design history file occurred outside the lim-
itations period.
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 21 Filed: 05/28/2026
INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 21
every aspect of the research and development efforts” at
Insulet. J.A. 321 ¶ 40. According to Insulet, Mr. DiIanni
“was in possession of detailed technical information about
Insulet’s Omnipod product, including but not limited to
product specifications, material compositions, coating ma-
terials, plating specifications, operational software re-
quirements and details, product functional requirements,
dimensional tolerances, drive stroke and force require-
ments, and other product and manufacturing details” dur-
ing his employment. J.A. 322 ¶ 41.
By March 15, 2019, which was more than three years
before Insulet filed its original complaint on August 3,
2023, internal Insulet emails showed that Insulet knew
Mr. DiIanni worked with EOFlow on the EOPatch 2. In
those emails, Dave Nazzaro, Insulet’s Director of Mechan-
ical and Materials COE, told Insulet’s Executive Vice Pres-
ident Eric Benjamin that “[t]he people running [EOFlow],
Luis M[alave], Ian W[elsford], and their designer Steve
D[iIanni] are past Insulet folks.” J.A. 43524. The undis-
puted facts thus demonstrate Insulet, by March 2019, had
sufficient knowledge to allege that EOFlow hired a former
employee to work on the EOPatch 2 who had knowledge of
and access to Insulet’s trade secrets, which satisfies the ac-
cess prong as a matter of law.
This case is similar to Seatrax, where the Fifth Circuit
held that a trade secret owner’s knowledge that a former
employee like Mr. DiIanni worked for the alleged misap-
propriator puts the trade secret owner on notice of access
as a matter of law, as “‘it is not unexpected that a former
employee will go to work for a competitor and that the com-
petitor might thereby acquire trade secrets.’” Seatrax,
200 F.3d at 365
(quoting Comput. Assocs. Int’l, Inc. v. Altai, Inc.,918 S.W.2d 453, 457
(Tex. 1996)). 8 An individual like
8 See also Heraeus, 927 F.3d at 735
(trade secret owner’s knowledge that individuals who were at a company Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 22 Filed: 05/28/2026 22 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. Mr. DiIanni is “a veritable repository of information on [his former employer’s] products and designs,” and, if “hired by [the alleged misappropriator] to design directly competing products, [the employee] would be hard pressed to avoid disclosing such information.” Leggett & Platt,285 F.3d at 1361
.
B. Similarity
With respect to similarity, the plaintiff must possess
knowledge of sufficient facts to allege that the defendant’s
competing product is similar to at least one of the alleged
trade secrets.
1. Knowledge of General Similarities
Evidence from Insulet’s own employees showed that In-
sulet understood that EOFlow had developed a similar,
competing product before the critical date. Specifically,
both Insulet and EOFlow attended a June 2018 American
Diabetics Association (“ADA”) Conference, at which at-
tendee EOFlow displayed samples of EOPatch 2. Insulet
took a photograph of the EOFlow booth, which included
samples both inside and outside of a glass case. Following
the conference, Insulet employee Jeffrey Miller sent an
email to Insulet management stating that “EOFlow has
cloned our product . . . Our legal team is aware of this.
Someone should request samples.” J.A. 43583. Similarly,
Insulet engineer Ashutosh Zade stated in an email imme-
diately after the conference that “[w]e need to see if this
solution is based on our IP.” J.A. 54333. Another report
from the conference by Insulet Senior Test Engineer Joe
Gragido stated that EOFlow “make[s] a product called ‘EO
Patch’ that looks almost identical to Omnipod from the
PDM to the GUI to the Pod . . . except it has 200 U insulin
with access to the alleged trade secrets were “direct partic-
ipants” in development of competing product contributed to
conclusion that statute of limitations had run).
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 23 Filed: 05/28/2026
INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 23
and it is ‘AP Ready.’” J.A. 43585. And an intelligence sum-
mary sent to Insulet management concluded that EOFlow
had a “[v]ery similar product to Insulet’s OmniPod as it was
started by a former Insulet engineer; similar form factor
and reservoir size.” J.A. 43595. At trial, Eric Benjamin, In-
sulet’s Chief Product and Customer Experience Officer,
testified that the EOPatch 2 presented at the June 2018
conference “bore a stunning resemblance” to the Omnipod.
J.A. 20589.
These admitted conclusions amount to more than “mere
suspicion of misappropriation.” Dissent 3. The record
shows that these conclusions caused Insulet to start inves-
tigating. Shortly after the 2018 ADA conference, Insulet
personnel visited the EOFlow website twenty times. In-
sulet and EOFlow attended another ADA conference in
2019, where EOFlow similarly displayed samples. In-
sulet’s Deputy General Counsel, Jonathan Paris, attended
the 2019 ADA conference. In the course of its investigation,
Insulet discovered or should have discovered product simi-
larity suggesting trade secret misappropriation.
2. CAD files
The CAD-files trade secret concerns the design and
manufacture of the Omnipod device and was defined as
“CAD files for the Omnipod, including the file 13800-POD-
ASSEMBLY-ASM.” J.A. 21387. In Insulet’s original com-
plaint, Insulet alleged trade-secret misappropriation based
on visual comparisons of the Omnipod device with a sample
EOPatch 2 that Insulet obtained at a January 2023 trade
show. Insulet relied on side-by-side images of “the similar-
ities in physical components between Insulet’s Omnipod
and EOFlow’s EOPatch.” J.A. 310–12 ¶ 9; J.A. 347 ¶ 134.
The illustrative examples of similarities in Insulet’s com-
plaint included: (1) a drive system using a walking-man
hook and ratchet gears with a large number of teeth per
wheel; (2) a tube nut configuration to engage a drive rod in
a plunger; (3) the insulin reservoir with a single O-ring for
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 24 Filed: 05/28/2026
24 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD.
the plunger; and (4) a “nail head” cannula seal. Uncontra-
dicted testimony and documents that were either known to
Insulet or publicly available showed that each of these fea-
tures was known or should have been known by Insulet be-
fore the critical date.
Walking-man hook and ratchet gears: Insulet’s
complaint describes similarities between the drive systems
in the Omnipod and EOPatch 2, which include a so-called
“walking-man” hook and ratchet gears. Insulet represent-
atives visited the EOFlow booth at both the 2018 and 2019
ADA trade shows and took a picture of EOFlow’s display.
At trial, EOFlow introduced physical samples of the
EOPatch clear case prototypes available at the 2018 and
2019 ADA conferences. Referring to the physical exhibit of
the sample from the 2018 ADA conference, Mr. Kim, the
chief executive officer of EOFlow, testified that “[s]o what
you see here, you can see very easily through the clear case
[features] such as the walking man.” J.A. 20749–52 (em-
phasis added). Mr. Kim also identified “the arm of the
walking man” and “the foot . . . that works between the
sensors,” and stated “if you look at it carefully, you can see
the teeth of the gears. So those are actually the gears in
that ratchet gear.” J.A. 20751. Insulet did not provide con-
trary testimony.
EOFlow also introduced undisputed evidence that a
prospectus created in connection with EOFlow’s IPO in Ko-
rea, which was publicly available by July 16, 2020, show-
cased various design features of the EOPatch. Eric
Benjamin, Insulet’s Chief Product and Customer Experi-
ence Officer, testified that Insulet was “paying consistent
attention” to EOFlow, and because “the IPO was a public
announcement, our attention increased.” J.A. 20600.
While the parties dispute whether Insulet reviewed the
prospectus before the critical date, a reasonable company
that is “paying consistent attention” to its competitor
should have known of major public announcements like the
IPO and accompanying prospectus before the critical date.
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 25 Filed: 05/28/2026
INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 25
J.A. 20600; see Ruth v. Unifund CCR Partners, 604 F.3d 908, 911
(6th Cir. 2010) (“When individuals have ‘the means of discovery in [their] power,’ they generally are ‘held to have known it.’” (alteration in original) (quoting Wood v. Carpenter,101 U.S. 135, 141
(1879))). Mr. Kim
testified without contradiction that an image in the pro-
spectus fully disclosed the walking man drive system, in-
cluding the ratchet gears, in the EOPatch 2. J.A. 20766
(referring to J.A. 40205).
Tube nut configuration: The complaint also alleged
similarities in the screws and nuts used to engage the
plungers in the respective devices. Mr. Kim testified that
“the tube nut and the screws . . . eventually drives the
plunger forward” in the insulin patch pump. J.A. 20773.
In reference to the clear case sample of the EOPatch 2 from
the 2018 ADA conference, Mr. Kim, again without contra-
diction, testified that the sample showed these “screws and
the nuts.” J.A. 20751.
Reservoir and plunger o-ring: Another similarity
between the Omnipod and the EOPatch 2 identified in In-
sulet’s complaint was an insulin reservoir with a single O-
ring for a plunger. Mr. Kim testified that the clear case
sample showed “the reservoir [and] the plunger head O-
ring.” J.A. 20751. EOFlow employee Luis Malave also con-
firmed that the clear case sample showed the insulin res-
ervoir. J.A. 20877. While Insulet argued that “there’s a
white piece that blocks the view of the bottom of the reser-
voir,” J.A. 20877, and that the reservoir’s metal cap was re-
moved on the clear case sample, it did not provide
testimony to contradict Mr. Kim’s testimony that the white
piece did not obstruct the view of any particular allegedly
similar component of the reservoir, including the plunger.
“Nail-head” soft cannula seal: Finally, Insulet al-
leged in its complaint that the EOPatch 2 had a similar
“nail-head” cannula seal to the Omnipod. Mr. Kim testified
that EOFlow “display[ed] a poster at the 2018 ADA trade
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 26 Filed: 05/28/2026
26 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD.
show . . . highlighting the soft cannula.” J.A. 20746–47 (re-
ferring to J.A. 55335). And, in particular, he testified that
the prospectus had “images of [the EOFlow] soft cannula in
EOPatch 2. . . . [T]his one has the flange or the nail head
and the tipping that goes into the body.” J.A. 20765 (em-
phasis added) (referring to J.A. 40208). Indeed, Insulet’s
technical expert admitted that the prospectus showed “fea-
tures on the soft cannula.” J.A. 21042. Again, there was
not contrary testimony.
In summary, the undisputed record shows that there
were no material facts in dispute about the similarity be-
tween the CAD files and the EOPatch 2. The record shows
that what was disclosed by examining the January 2023
sample was previously known as a result of the earlier dis-
closures. Therefore, the statute of limitations expired with
respect to the CAD-files trade secret before Insulet brought
suit, and the jury’s contrary conclusion was not supported
by substantial evidence.
3. Soft cannula and design history file
We next turn to the soft cannula and design history file
trade secrets. Insulet asserted the soft cannula (which has
its design included in the CAD-files trade secret) as a sep-
arate trade secret, defined as the “design and manufactur-
ing process of the Omnipod soft cannula.” J.A. 21387.
Having concluded that the statute has run as to the soft
cannula design contained in the CAD-files trade secret, the
statute of limitations has also run as to the specific soft
cannula trade secret.
In addition, Insulet also included the CAD files in the
scope of a broader compilation trade secret, the design his-
tory file. The design history file trade secret is defined as
“the design history file or DHF for the Omnipod Eros.”
J.A. 21387. When “the processes, procedures, or other
pieces of information used in each separate act of misap-
propriation are related to each other as portions or phases
of a single trade secret,” each act relates to the same
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 27 Filed: 05/28/2026
INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 27
misappropriation claim. Gognat, 259 P.3d at 503
(inter- preting Colorado Uniform Trade Secrets Act). The statute of limitations thus begins to run for the entire trade secret whenever misappropriation of a portion of that trade secret is discovered or should have been discovered.Id.
at 504–
05. If the statute of limitations has run on a trade secret,
the statute of limitations has also run with respect to re-
lated, broader trade secrets of which it is a part. The stat-
ute of limitations therefore began to run with respect to the
design history file trade secret whenever Insulet knew, or
should have known, of sufficient information to plead a
claim as to the CAD-files trade secret. This occurred before
the critical date. 9
4. Occlusion-detection algorithm
Finally, we address the occlusion-detection algorithm
trade secret. Occlusion detection is a standard feature of
all insulin pumps. But a particular occlusion-detection al-
gorithm may be a trade secret. The Omnipod’s occlusion-
detection algorithm is a “built-in method for quickly and
accurately identifying any occlusion” that prevents deliv-
ery of insulin, Appellee’s Br. 6, and is comprised of subcom-
ponent algorithms.
Before the critical date, as discussed above, Insulet
possessed or should have possessed sufficient knowledge of
(1) EOFlow’s access to Insulet’s trade secrets through
Mr. DiIanni; and (2) striking similarities between the
CAD-files trade secret and the EOPatch 2, which was dis-
closed by Mr. DiIanni to EOFlow during the same time pe-
riod and for the same purpose as the other asserted trade
secrets (to design the improved EOPatch 2). Mr. DiIanni’s
9 Because we conclude that the statute of limitations
expired with respect to the design history file trade secret,
we do not reach EOFlow’s argument that the design history
file does not constitute a trade secret.
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 28 Filed: 05/28/2026
28 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD.
unauthorized disclosures to EOFlow, including his disclo-
sure of the occlusion-detection algorithm trade secret, form
the breach of confidence at the heart of Insulet’s trade se-
cret misappropriation claim. See Monolith, 407 F.2d at 293
; Kehoe,796 F.3d at 583
. As Insulet’s claim is time-
barred with respect to the other trade secrets that were
part of this disclosure, Insulet’s trade secret claim is also
time-barred with respect to the occlusion-detection algo-
rithm.
Importantly, this conclusion reflects a “controlling prin-
ciple consistent with the purposes of the statutory accrual
rule” for trade secrets that do not outwardly manifest in a
misappropriator’s product. Gognat, 259 P.3d at 502
. Such
is the case when trade secrets are used internally to de-
velop a product, like the occlusion-detection algorithm
here. Otherwise, absent direct proof of a misappropriator’s
access to the trade secret, 10 the statute of limitations would
never expire for a trade secret that could not be discovered
based on publicly available information or other infor-
mation known to the plaintiff. The statute of limitations
begins to run with respect to all trade secrets disclosed dur-
ing substantially the same time to that defendant by the
same person for the same purpose.
In summary, we conclude that the undisputed evidence
establishes that the statute of limitations expired with re-
spect to each trade secret before Insulet filed its complaint
on August 3, 2023, and that the jury’s verdict to the con-
trary was unsupported by substantial evidence.
5. Claimed Contrary Evidence
Largely through unexplained citations, Insulet argues
that the record supports its position that it was not able to
10 We have previously noted that “direct evidence is
rarely available” as to a misappropriator’s access to a trade
secret. Leggett & Platt, 285 F.3d at 1361
.
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 29 Filed: 05/28/2026
INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 29
discover facts sufficient to bring its trade secret claim until
after the critical date. We have examined each one of In-
sulet’s references cited in its brief, at oral argument, and
in its letter to the court following oral argument. None of
its citations contradicts the evidence that Insulet discov-
ered or should have discovered facts sufficient to allege
trade secret misappropriation before the critical date.
Nominal dimensions: First, Insulet points to testi-
mony that, before the critical date, it could not discover the
precise, nominal dimensions contained in the CAD files be-
cause the nominal dimensions shown in the CAD files
“could not be gleaned from examining a physical sample.”
Appellee’s Br. 5; see also Oral Arg. at 27:10–36:17. 11
As discussed earlier, knowledge of the precise nominal
dimensions of a device are not needed to plead trade secret
misappropriation, and Insulet itself did not plead facts re-
lated to the nominal dimensions of the EOPatch 2 in its
original complaint based on the sample it examined in Feb-
ruary 2023. Insulet did not need to know the dimensions
of the EOPatch 2 to plead misappropriation.
Manufacturing processes of the cannula seal: In-
sulet relies on testimony from Luis Malave, an EOFlow em-
ployee who formerly worked for Insulet, who stated that
one could not see “the method by which the cannula was
11 Insulet also cites testimony from one of its engi-
neers describing how the CAD files have “dimensions for
every one of [the] features” in the Omnipod Eros, but that
these dimensions could not be measured “in a physical
part.” J.A. 20518. Insulet’s technical expert admitted that
nominal dimensions cannot be ascertained by “open[ing a
device] up and looking at it.” J.A. 21035; accord
J.A. 21066–67; see also Trial Tr. Day 5, Insulet Corp.
v. EOFlow, Co., No. 23-11780 (D. Mass. Dec. 13, 2024),
ECF No. 843, at 183:17–24 (testimony by Mr. DiIanni).
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 30 Filed: 05/28/2026
30 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD.
manufactured” by looking at the 2018 ADA conference
sample. J.A. 20877. 12 The manufacture of the soft cannula
is only a portion of the soft cannula trade secret. Insulet
could have discovered the similarity of the design of the
EOPatch 2 cannula seal to its trade secrets before the crit-
ical date. In its complaint, Insulet alleged misappropria-
tion based on the visual similarity between these features
of the cannula seal on the Omnipod and EOPatch 2, rather
than manufacturing processes. There is no testimony that
knowledge of the misappropriation of the design of the soft
cannula seal was not available prior to the critical date.
“Cut off” soft cannula: Insulet relies on testimony
from several EOFlow witnesses who testified that the soft
cannula was “cut off” of the physical samples of the
EOPatch 2 at the ADA conference in June 2018.
J.A. 20780 (Jesse Kim); J.A. 20877 (Luis Malave). How-
ever, as discussed earlier, other disclosures, including
EOFlow’s poster at the 2018 ADA conference and the pro-
spectus, disclosed the relevant features of the soft cannula
on the EOPatch 2 before the critical date. J.A. 20746–47
(referring to J.A. 55335); J.A. 21042.
Conclusory testimony: Finally, Insulet relies on gen-
eralized conclusory testimony from its own witnesses. Re-
ferring to the prospectus, an Insulet expert testified that,
“[M]y opinion [is] [t]here is nothing there that would indi-
cate . . . that a trade secret had been misappropriated.”
J.A. 21042. Insulet also refers to testimony from its dili-
gence expert that, in his opinion, Insulet could not send a
cease-and-desist letter to EOFlow “until they had obtained
a product and were able to see the inner workings of [the
12 Insulet similarly argues that information available
before the critical date failed to disclose “specialized tooling
or special dimensions to create a seal” on the soft cannula,
relying on testimony from one of its technical experts.
J.A. 21042.
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 31 Filed: 05/28/2026
INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 31
EOPatch 2].” J.A. 21321–22. Another Insulet witness tes-
tified that he would not “think that EOFlow had stolen In-
sulet’s trade secrets” until he saw “the inner workings” of
the EOPatch 2, and that “as of 2020 there was still nothing
to suggest that EOFlow was doing something different
than following a different technology path to produce a
product that was a lot like Omnipod.” J.A. 20540–41,
20587; accord J.A. 20524, 20583–84, 20586–88, 20598.
In light of the specific testimony as to the features dis-
cerned before the critical date, such generalized, conclusory
testimony reflecting the subjective view of the witness (the
opinion or “thinking” of the witness) is insufficient evidence
to support the verdict. See Trs. of Boston Univ. v. Everlight
Elecs. Co., Ltd., 896 F.3d 1357, 1363
(Fed. Cir. 2018) (“[C]onclusory statements by an expert . . . are insufficient to sustain a jury’s verdict.” (quoting MobileMedia Ideas LLC v. Apple Inc.,780 F.3d 1159, 1172
(Fed. Cir. 2015))
(alterations in original)). The district court here should
have granted JMOL because the statute of limitations ex-
pired before Insulet filed its complaint on August 3, 2023. 13
13 Insulet also suggests EOFlow engaged in a “strat-
egy of concealment” of the EOPatch 2, Appellee’s Br. 46,
and that “Defendants’ concealment and misrepresenta-
tions” of EOFlow’s technology also support the jury’s stat-
ute-of-limitations findings. Appellee’s Br. 51. EOFlow
correctly notes that Insulet did not plead fraudulent con-
cealment as an affirmative defense. Reply Br. 19. Even
assuming fraudulent concealment is at issue, fraudulent
concealment may only toll a limitations period if “the con-
cealment prevented plaintiff's discovery of the nature of the
claim within the limitations period; and . . . plaintiff exer-
cised due diligence in pursuing the discovery of the claim
during the period plaintiff seeks to have tolled.” Koch
v. Christie’s Int’l PLC, 699 F.3d 141, 157
(2d Cir. 2012) (in-
ternal quotations omitted); see also Klehr v. A.O. Smith
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 32 Filed: 05/28/2026
32 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD.
The dissent does nothing to undermine this analysis.
First, the dissent suggests that somehow this approach “in-
duces an unfortunate, and premature, rush to the court-
house.” Dissent 3. Quite the contrary, the analysis is
entirely in terms of the original complaint that was actu-
ally filed by Insulet (not the amended complaint that incor-
porated information secured through discovery) and simply
asks whether the information alleged in Insulet’s own com-
plaint to support Insulet’s misappropriation claim had
been discovered or should have been discovered before the
critical date. That focus hardly prompts premature filing.
Second, the dissent questions whether allegations un-
der the access-plus-similarity framework may sufficiently
state a claim for trade secret misappropriation because
several of the relevant cases do not involve the motion-to-
dismiss stage. While the relevant cases arise in different
procedural postures, they each address and confirm the rel-
evant standard to plead and prove trade secret misappro-
priation claims.
Third, the dissent suggests that “the Opinion flips the
[JMOL] standard on its head and accepts EOFlow’s view of
the facts over Insulet’s,” Dissent 7, and “assumes . . . sim-
ilarities were known before the critical date.” Dissent 9.
We do no such thing. Rather, we conduct a detailed analy-
sis of the Insulet testimony that allegedly supports a lack
of access and similarity, and we conclude that it demon-
strates a lack of substantial evidence to support the jury’s
verdict.
Corp., 521 U.S. 179, 195
(1997) (for RICO claims, “[t]he con-
cealment requirement is satisfied only if the plaintiff shows
that he neither knew nor, in the exercise of due diligence,
could reasonably have known of the offense” (internal quo-
tations omitted)). Here, EOFlow did not prevent Insulet
from discovering the relevant information.
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 33 Filed: 05/28/2026
INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 33
As to access, the dissent simply suggests that Insulet
was unaware before the critical date whether Insulet’s for-
mer employees took relevant documentation with them
when they left the company. Dissent 7–8. As outlined in
Oakwood Laboratories and Leggett & Platt, the relevant in-
quiry is the “competitor’s access to the plaintiff’s former
employee,” Oakwood Lab’ys, 999 F.3d at 912
n.19, particu- larly when that employee, like Mr. DiIanni, is a “veritable repository of information on [plaintiff]’s products and de- signs,” Leggett & Platt,285 F.3d at 1361
. Under the rele-
vant cases, knowledge that specific documentation has
been misappropriated is unnecessary. In any event, the
original complaint said nothing about Mr. DiIanni or any
other former Insulet employee’s misappropriation of In-
sulet documents, which are facts that Insulet admittedly
only learned after discovery and incorporated in the
amended complaint. See Appellee’s Br. 16; Appellee’s Prin-
cipal Br. at 9–12, Insulet I (No. 24-1137), Dkt. No. 29 (dis-
cussing evidence of document retention and disclosure
produced during expedited preliminary discovery). Insulet
itself thought this evidence was unnecessary to allege
trade secret misappropriation in its original complaint.
As to similarity, the dissent recognizes that the “eval-
uation of the similarity prong must be a fact-intensive in-
quiry that carefully considers the context and type of trade
secret at issue.” Dissent 4. But the dissent largely fails to
conduct this fact-intensive analysis or to address the fac-
tual analysis necessary for substantial evidence review.
The dissent suggests there is a conflict in testimony
that preserves the jury’s verdict. Dissent 9–11. There is
no such conflict. The specific testimony on which the dis-
sent relies fails to show Insulet lacked knowledge of simi-
larity between the Omnipod and the EOPatch 2 before the
critical date. The dissent identifies Insulet’s claimed lack
of knowledge as to manufacturing details of the EOPatch 2,
Dissent 9 (citing J.A. 20583–84); id.
at 11 (citing
J.A. 21041–42), but knowledge of these details is
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 34 Filed: 05/28/2026
34 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD.
unnecessary to state a claim for misappropriation. See su-
pra section III. The dissent also relies on testimony that
the soft cannula was “cut-off” of the ADA conference sam-
ples. Dissent 10 (citing J.A. 20780, 20877). As discussed
above, the EOPatch 2’s soft cannula was fully disclosed be-
fore the critical date, with Insulet’s own expert admitting
that the features of the soft cannula were disclosed in the
prospectus. See supra section V.B.2; see also J.A. 21042.
The remaining testimony relied upon by the dissent, all of
which came from Insulet employees, Dissent 9–10 (citing
J.A. 20541, 20583–84, 20586–88) is conclusory and subjec-
tive. See supra section V.B.5
In summary, the record shows that Insulet personnel
were close enough to the EOFlow samples to take photo-
graphs at the 2018 ADA conference and observed striking
similarities between the products; that Insulet personnel
visited the EOFlow website twenty times in the days after
the 2018 ADA conference; that Jonathan Paris, Insulet’s
Deputy General Counsel, examined the EOFlow booth at
the 2019 ADA conference; and that images of features of
the EOPatch 2 were publicly available in the prospectus
before the critical date. None of the testimony raised in the
dissent rebuts the undisputed evidence that Insulet knew
or should have known of the similarities between the as-
serted trade secrets and the EOPatch 2 before the critical
date. Insulet’s claim is thus time-barred.
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, we reverse the judgment be-
cause the statute of limitations for Insulet’s DTSA claim
expired before Insulet brought suit. We therefore decline
to address the other issues EOFlow raises on appeal.
REVERSED
COSTS
Costs to EOFlow.
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 35 Filed: 05/28/2026
United States Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit
______________________
INSULET CORP.,
Plaintiff-Appellee
v.
EOFLOW, CO. LTD., EOFLOW, INC., JESSE J. KIM,
Defendants-Appellants
______________________
2025-1807
______________________
Appeal from the United States District Court for the
District of Massachusetts in No. 1:23-cv-11780-FDS, Judge
F. Dennis Saylor, IV.
______________________
PROST, Circuit Judge, dissenting.
After a five-week trial in which over twenty witnesses
testified and more than 300 exhibits were admitted into ev-
idence, the jury found that none of the misappropriated
trade secrets were time-barred. Yet, the majority over-
turns the jury’s verdict based on legal theories that
EOFlow neither presses nor develops. The majority errs in
four main ways: (1) it conflates its application of the dis-
covery rule with the inquiry-notice standard, (2) it adopts
a framework not supported by the case law, (3) it encour-
ages plaintiffs to race to the courthouse with undeveloped
claims based on mere suspicion, and (4) it improperly
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 36 Filed: 05/28/2026
2 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD.
substitutes our own fact findings for those of the jury. I
respectfully dissent. 1
I
The debate in this case begins with which standard ap-
plies to the DTSA’s statute-of-limitations provision: the in-
quiry-notice standard or the discovery rule? That answer
matters because it determines when the clock starts for the
statute of limitations. Under the inquiry-notice standard,
the clock starts when a reasonably diligent person would
have begun to investigate a potential misappropriation.
Under the discovery rule, the clock starts when a reasona-
bly diligent person discovered (or should have discovered)
the misappropriation.
Rather than address this issue head on, the majority
sidesteps the parties’ dispute and concludes that “even un-
der the more demanding Merck standard [(i.e., discovery
rule)], the statute of limitations expired before Insulet filed
its complaint.” Maj. 10. My concern with the majority’s
approach is two-fold: (1) it is clear from the plain text of 18 U.S.C. § 1836
(d) that the discovery rule applies, not the in-
quiry-notice standard, and (2) the majority’s application of
the discovery rule does not appear meaningfully different
from the inquiry-notice standard.
As to my first concern, a claim under the DTSA “may
not be commenced later than 3 years after the date on
which the misappropriation with respect to which the ac-
tion would relate is discovered or by the exercise of reason-
able diligence should have been discovered.” 18 U.S.C. § 1836
(d) (emphasis added). This is the discovery rule, not
the inquiry-notice standard. There should be no reasona-
ble debate or hedging about which standard governs here.
1 I join Part I of the majority’s opinion, which con-
cerns our jurisdiction.
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 37 Filed: 05/28/2026
INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 3
As to my second concern, the majority focuses its anal-
ysis on when Insulet should have begun its investigation
(i.e., when the clock starts under the inquiry-notice stand-
ard), not when Insulet reasonably should have discovered
the misappropriation (i.e., when the clock starts under the
discovery rule). See, e.g., Maj. 23. Those are two separate
events. The majority’s apparent application of the discov-
ery rule raises questions as to whether it sees a meaningful
difference between those standards. And, to be sure, there
is a difference. As I explain below, under proper applica-
tion of the discovery rule, Insulet’s complaint was timely
filed (or so the jury might have reasonably found).
II
I agree with the majority that the access-plus-similar-
ity framework helps determine when a reasonably diligent
plaintiff should have discovered the misappropriation, but
I do not agree with how the majority defines the access-
plus-similarity framework and applies it to the facts in this
case. First, the majority’s characterization (and applica-
tion) of the access-plus-similarity framework is not sup-
ported by the case law and induces a premature, and
unfortunate, rush to the courthouse based on mere suspi-
cion. Second, the majority’s analysis overturning the jury’s
statute-of-limitations findings is based on a mistaken view
that those findings were unsupported by substantial evi-
dence. By deeming all asserted trade secrets time-barred,
the majority substitutes its own view of the facts for that of
the jury. 2
A
The majority adopts an access-plus-similarity frame-
work not supported by the case law. It announces that we
2 I address separately why the occlusion-detection-
algorithm trade secret is not time-barred in Part III of this
dissent.
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 38 Filed: 05/28/2026
4 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD.
have held “the plaintiff possesses sufficient facts to state a
claim for trade secret misappropriation” “if a plaintiff has
knowledge that (1) the alleged misappropriator has access
to the alleged trade secrets through a former employee of
the trade secret owner and (2) there is similarity between
the trade secrets and the alleged misappropriator’s compet-
ing product.” Maj. 13–14 (citing Leggett & Platt, Inc.
v. Hickory Springs Mfg. Co., 285 F.3d 1353
(Fed. Cir.
2002)). That framework is not supported by the case law.
And, practically speaking, that can’t be the framework.
“Access” must require more than just the fact that a
former employee who had access to trade secrets now
works for the defendant (otherwise, premature suits will
proliferate), and evaluation of the similarity prong must be
a fact-intensive inquiry that carefully considers the context
and type of trade secret at issue.
Contrary to the majority’s suggestion, Leggett does not
address the pleading standard for trade secret cases; ra-
ther, it concerned the district court’s grant of summary
judgment of no misappropriation of trade secrets. 3 We also
3 While Oakwood concerned a motion to dismiss, it
does not support the majority’s characterization of the ac-
cess-plus-similarity framework. Contrary to the majority’s
suggestion, Maj. 33, the complaint in Oakwood relied on
more than just (1) the competitor hiring a former employee
who had access to the trade secrets and (2) the similarity
of the products. Oakwood Labs. v. Thanoo, 999 F.3d 892
, 912–13 (3d Cir. 2021) (noting the timing of the former em- ployee’s employment, the former employee’s deception about the work he would engage in at the competitor’s com- pany, the competitor’s lack of experience in the highly spe- cialized field, the competitor’s “rapid success” in developing the competing products that took the former employer “nearly 20 years to develop,” and “the comparatively insig- nificant financial investment” the competitor put into the Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 39 Filed: 05/28/2026 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 5 did not affirmatively hold that “access to the alleged trade secrets through a former employee of the trade secret owner” meets the access prong. Contra Maj. 14. Rather, we concluded that “the district court prematurely dis- missed [the trade-secret holder’s] evidence on access and similarity” because there were genuine issues of material fact. Leggett,285 F.3d at 1361
.
The majority’s reliance on Seatrax to support its appli-
cation of the access-plus-similarity framework fares no bet-
ter. In Seatrax, the defendant not only previously had
access to the trade secrets, but there was also evidence that
the trade-secret holder knew the defendant had wrongly
taken the trade secrets. Seatrax, Inc. v. Sonbeck Int’l, Inc.,
200 F.3d 358, 365
(5th Cir. 2000) (noting trade secret draw- ings were missing from premises). And while the majority cites Sokol, that case undermines the majority’s character- ization (and application) of the access-plus-similarity framework. There, even though the trade-secret holder knew the misappropriated product “was similar to its own,” “these apprehensions were still just concerns and suspi- cions rather than knowledge of misuse.” Sokol Crystal Prods., Inc. v. DSC Commc’ns Corp.,15 F.3d 1427, 1430
(7th Cir. 1994) (emphasis in original) (concluding the stat-
ute of limitations did not start accruing until the misappro-
priated products were sold to a third party).
The majority also, in my view, does not accurately char-
acterize Insulet’s alleged concessions during oral argu-
ment. Maj. 14. The majority cites Insulet’s agreement that
development of the products). The majority also suggests
that Harbor Business Compliance Corp. v. Firstbase.io,
Inc., 152 F.4th 516
, 530 (3d Cir. 2025), addressed the rele-
vant pleading standard in trade secret cases. Maj. 11. Not
so. That case dealt with a denial of a renewed motion for
judgment as a matter of law.
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 40 Filed: 05/28/2026
6 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD.
the access-plus-similarity framework applies in this case,
but that agreement does not extend to how the majority
defines and applies that framework. According to Insulet,
the access prong could not be met here because Insulet did
not know that its former employees had taken the trade-
secret documents with them and given them to EOFlow be-
fore the critical date. Oral Arg. at 28:27–29:49.
Finally, from a practical standpoint, the majority’s ac-
cess-plus-similarity framework would arguably produce
absurd results. See Sokol, 15 F.3d at 1430
(“At least in the
commercial setting at issue here, suspicion and fear are not
sufficient predicates for launching a lawsuit, and to file an
action with no other basis would offend norms articulated
in rules like Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11.” (cleaned
up)). Employees frequently move between companies
working on similar products. Under the majority’s frame-
work, a plaintiff’s statute-of-limitations clock starts prem-
aturely whenever a former employee joins a competitor
that makes a superficially similar product. Clearly, that
cannot be correct.
B
Applying what I consider to be the proper access-plus-
similarity framework, I would conclude that ample evi-
dence supports the jury’s finding that Insulet did not dis-
cover, nor reasonably should have discovered, the
misappropriation of the asserted trade secrets before the
critical date—August 2020. Yet, rather than view the evi-
dence in the light most favorable to Insulet—as the govern-
ing standard of review here requires, Dimanche v.
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, 893 F.3d 1, 8
(1st Cir. 2018)—the majority flips the standard on its head
and accepts EOFlow’s view of the facts over Insulet’s.
1
As to the access prong, the majority concludes that “un-
disputed facts” demonstrate that by March 2019, Insulet
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 41 Filed: 05/28/2026
INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 7
“had sufficient knowledge to allege that EOFlow hired a
former employee to work on the EOPatch 2 who had
knowledge of and access to Insulet’s trade secrets.”
Maj. 21. That conclusion is doubly flawed. First, starting
the statute-of-limitations clock by March 2019 is too early.
As discussed above, the mere fact that Insulet’s former em-
ployee had knowledge of and access to Insulet’s trade se-
crets and subsequently worked on EOFlow’s EOPatch 2
alone is insufficient to satisfy the access prong. And the
two paragraphs of the complaint the majority cites, Maj. 21
(quoting J.A. 321–22 ¶¶ 40–41), only show that Insulet’s
former employees knew about the trade secrets while at In-
sulet.
Second, there are disputed facts concerning the access
prong that were properly before the jury. For example, In-
sulet’s senior executive Eric Benjamin testified that “[i]t’s
common practice to hire folks who have relevant industry
experience. We hire folks for their experience, and if they
join us, we expect them to abide by whatever confidential-
ity requirements they had from a prior employer.”
J.A. 20584 (119:12–19); see also J.A. 20584 (119:20–22). 4
And it was not until after the critical date that Insulet
knew its former employees had wrongly transferred thou-
sands of confidential Insulet documents to their personal
computers and later provided them to EOFlow. See
J.A. 20540 (148:17–24); J.A. 20584 (119:12–22); J.A. 20586
(126:21–127:3); J.A. 20587 (130:25–131:7); J.A. 20588
(134:17–136:11); J.A. 20598 (20:13–15); J.A. 20618–19
(100:4–103:2); J.A. 21119 (238:20–239:2); J.A. 21327
(61:22–62:2). Subsequent revelations prompted Insulet to
amend its complaint further to allege that during the
course of Insulet’s former employees’ employment and
4 To suggest otherwise would undermine confidenti-
ality or nondisclosure provisions that are widely used in
employment contracts.
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 42 Filed: 05/28/2026
8 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD.
consultancy agreements, “Defendants DiIanni and Wels-
ford improperly transferred thousands of confidential In-
sulet documents to their personal computers” and later
provided those documents to EOFlow. Amended Com-
plaint ¶¶ 50, 61, Insulet Corp. v. EOFlow, Co.,
No. 23-11780 (D. Mass. Oct. 27, 2023), Dkt. No. 159. Those
allegations were not in the original complaint. 5
2
As to the similarity prong, the majority concludes that
the “undisputed evidence establishes that the statute of
limitations expired with respect to each trade secret” be-
fore the critical date and “that the jury’s verdict to the con-
trary was unsupported by substantial evidence.” Maj. 28.
To reach that conclusion, the majority conducts its own
evaluation of the credibility of witnesses and the weight of
the evidence by treating all evidence in favor of EOFlow as
undisputed (it was not) and entirely credible (which is for
the jury to decide), and any contrary evidence presented by
Insulet as allegedly conclusory or too general to support the
jury’s verdict. On this record, a reasonable jury could have
found in favor of Insulet.
The majority liberally cites Insulet’s complaint and ap-
pears to accept the (unproven) premise that the allegations
in Insulet’s complaint were known or should have been
known to Insulet more than three years before it was filed.
See Maj. 23–26; see also Appellants’ Br. 36. Yet the allega-
tions in the complaint concerning events before the critical
date do not necessarily reflect the moment when Insulet
should have known that the misappropriation occurred
(absent some statement in the complaint suggesting other-
wise). Rather than drawing unwarranted inferences from
the complaint, I would instead defer to the results of the
5 Whether Insulet’s original complaint was suffi-
ciently pleaded is not before this court.
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 43 Filed: 05/28/2026
INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 9
jury trial (including the facts developed at trial) on this is-
sue. And rather than draw inferences from the complaint
that are unfavorable to Insulet, I would view the facts de-
veloped at trial in the light most favorable to Insulet—the
prevailing party—as is required by our standard of review.
For example, the majority relies on side-by-side images
of Insulet’s Omnipod and EOFlow’s EOPatch 2 in the com-
plaint and assumes those similarities were known before
the critical date. Maj. 23–26. Facts developed at trial,
however, show that EOFlow was evasive when Insulet ap-
proached EOFlow’s trade show booth and that EOFlow pre-
vented Insulet from inspecting the small device and its
intricate inner workings up close. J.A. 20583 (116:12–15),
J.A. 20584 (117:19–118:3); see also J.A. 41453 (“[n]eed[ed]
to keep [Insulet] guessing on our corporate plans”);
J.A. 41605 (“[j]ust need[ed] to find out what [Insulet]
want[ed] while keeping a low profile on our own plans”). I
therefore don’t see how the majority can credibly state that
“[u]ncontradicted testimony and documents that were ei-
ther known to Insulet or publicly available showed that
each of these features [in the complaint] was known or
should have been known by Insulet before the critical
date.” Maj. 24.
There was additional evidence presented to the jury
showing that Insulet reasonably should not have known
about EOFlow’s misappropriation before the critical date.
For example, the similarities in appearance between the
Omnipod and EOPatch 2 did not necessarily mean that
EOFlow misappropriated any trade secrets, especially
given the type and size of technology at issue here. See,
e.g., J.A. 20541 (149:8–150:6) (Mr. Benjamin testifying “the
fact that EOPatch [2] had similarities to the way” the Om-
nipod looked did not make Insulet think EOFlow had sto-
len Insulet’s trade secrets because “[p]eople are trying to
build patch pumps, they’re all going to be in that general
size and shape”); see also J.A. 20586 (126:21–127:3),
J.A. 20587 (130:25–131:7), J.A. 20588 (134:17–135:12).
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 44 Filed: 05/28/2026
10 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD.
And before the critical date, the publicly available infor-
mation suggested that EOFlow was working on products
that used technology different from the Omnipod, reinforc-
ing Insulet’s understanding that EOFlow was lawfully de-
veloping a device using different technology. See, e.g.,
J.A. 20587 (130:25–131:7) (“As of 2020 there was still noth-
ing to suggest that EOFlow was doing something different
than following a different technology path to produce a
product that was a lot like Omnipod.”); see also J.A. 54333,
J.A. 21041–42 (102:21–106:22). EOFlow’s witness also tes-
tified that looking at the samples provided at the 2018 and
2019 ADA conferences, he could not “see the method by
which the cannula was manufactured by looking at these
devices” and “the cannula was cut off of the samples that
were used at the ADA conferences.” J.A. 20877
(111:18–23); see also J.A. 20780 (137:7–14). Thus, there
were disputed facts properly before the jury.
The majority belittles Insulet employees’ testimony as
“conclusory and subjective.” Maj. 34. As discussed above,
I disagree that the testimony is conclusory. And of course
Insulet employees’ testimony was “subjective,” just as
EOFlow employees’ testimony was subjective. Both sides
had opportunities to cross-examine each other’s witnesses,
and it was for the jury, not this court, to weigh the credibil-
ity of the witnesses’ statements.
The majority also holds that Insulet could have discov-
ered the misappropriation if only it had pored over a pre-
dominantly Korean-language, 500-page prospectus filed
with Korean financial regulators in July 2020—mere
weeks before the critical date of August 3, 2020.
Maj. 24–26. The standard is reasonable diligence, not
maximum feasible diligence. There was also a factual dis-
pute as to whether the prospectus contained a sufficient
level of relevant details to indicate possible misappropria-
tion. See J.A. 21041–42 (104:16–106:22).
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 45 Filed: 05/28/2026
INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 11
Purportedly applying the discovery rule, the majority
concludes that the events that transpired at (or shortly af-
ter) the 2018 ADA conference “caused Insulet to start in-
vestigating.” Maj. 23. The majority points to the fact that
“Insulet personnel visited the EOFlow website twenty
times,” and “EOFlow attended another ADA conference in
2019.” Maj. 23. It was for the jury to weigh that evidence
and determine whether these so-called investigations re-
sulted in Insulet discovering, or if Insulet reasonably
should have discovered, the trade-secret misappropriation
before the critical date.
* * *
The majority’s critique of this dissent for failing to con-
duct the fact-intensive analysis just proves my point.
Maj. 33. That’s not this court’s role. When reviewing chal-
lenges to the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the
jury’s verdict, we must view the evidence in the light most
favorable to Insulet and draw “all factual inferences and
resolving all credibility determinations in [its] favor.” Di-
manche, 893 F.3d at 4
n.2. The analysis the majority seeks
from the dissent was for the jury to conduct, not this court.
III
I write separately to address the occlusion-detection al-
gorithm trade secret. The majority concludes that this
trade secret is time-barred on a theory not advanced by
EOFlow on appeal. Maj. 14–19, 27–28. In any event, I
don’t think we need to reach that theory if the majority had
properly applied the discovery rule on these facts (and in
this posture).
To conclude that the occlusion-detection algorithm
trade secret is time-barred, the majority decides what ap-
pears to be an issue of first impression in the First Circuit:
whether the statute of limitations inquiry should be evalu-
ated on a trade-secret-by-trade-secret basis. The majority
concludes that the facts here “point[] toward a single
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 46 Filed: 05/28/2026
12 INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD.
accrual date for Insulet’s trade secret misappropriation
claim against EOFlow.” Maj. 19.
I am uncomfortable embracing a theory not advanced
by EOFlow and that was not briefed before this court, par-
ticularly on an issue of first impression in the First Circuit.
The district court instructed the jury to analyze the stat-
ute-of-limitations inquiry trade-secret-by-trade-secret,
J.A. 21392 (173:12–13; 174:14–15), and EOFlow did not
challenge those instructions on appeal. I wouldn’t have
gone where the parties did not.
The majority suggests it’s duty-bound to address this
issue because “whether a party is entitled to JMOL does
not depend on how the jury was instructed. The inquiry is
whether under the controlling law, the defendant is enti-
tled to JMOL.” Maj. 15 (cleaned up). But the majority isn’t
consistent in deciding when to address the proper “control-
ling law.” Later in its analysis, it declines to address the
burden-shifting jury instruction because neither party
challenged that instruction on appeal. See Maj. 20.
In any event, I do not believe we need to reach this is-
sue because, in my view, under the proper application of
the discovery rule, none of the trade secrets are time-
barred. See Part II. The occlusion-detection algorithm
trade secret was not alleged in Insulet’s original complaint.
Insulet discovered this misappropriation during discovery.
And EOFlow only used Insulet’s occlusion-detection algo-
rithm trade secret while developing the EOPatch 2; it was
not used in the final product. J.A. 72–73. Even EOFlow’s
witnesses admitted that there was “nothing proprietary
about the Omnipod algorithm [i.e., the occlusion-detection-
algorithm trade secret] reflected in” the Korean-language
prospectus, J.A. 21198 (85:15–87:7), nor would someone
simply looking at a sample of the EOPatch 2 at the 2018 or
2019 ADA conferences have been alerted to suspect misap-
propriation of the occlusion-detection-algorithm trade se-
cret, J.A. 20877 (111:4–23). I would conclude that given
Case: 25-1807 Document: 62 Page: 47 Filed: 05/28/2026
INSULET CORP. v. EOFLOW, CO. LTD. 13
the trial record before the jury, the district court did not err
in denying EOFlow’s JMOL motion as to the occlusion-de-
tection algorithm trade secret.
IV
Because I conclude that substantial evidence supports
the jury verdict for all asserted trade secrets, I would have
reached EOFlow’s arguments concerning (1) the specificity
of Insulet’s design history file trade secret, (2) the district
court’s reasonable measures jury instruction, and (3) its
challenge to the damages award. On the design-history-
file-trade-secret issue, I would have agreed with EOFlow
that Insulet’s design-history-file trade secret was severely
overbroad. I also see no error in the district court’s jury
instructions related to reasonable measures. On the dam-
ages issue, I would have held that the district court
properly awarded Insulet avoided-cost damages based on
the research and development costs EOFlow saved by mis-
appropriating Insulet’s trade secrets. These are costs
EOFlow would have otherwise incurred to possess and use
the trade secrets. That award is legally permissible and
not duplicative. I also see no abuse of discretion by the dis-
trict court in imposing joint-and-several liability on
Mr. Kim.
CONCLUSION
The jury’s role as fact-finder lies at the heart of our ju-
dicial system. Both Insulet and EOFlow put forth evidence
supporting their respective positions concerning whether
Insulet should have discovered EOFlow’s misappropriation
before the critical date. The majority’s characterization of
EOFlow’s evidence as “undisputed” or “uncontradicted” is
unsupported and would undermine the critical fact-finding
role of the jury. I respectfully dissent.