Covington & Burling
Firm overview:
White-shoe law firm Covington & Burling has a global presence with six of its 14 offices in the US. The multi-disciplinary firm handles complex bet-the-company litigation, covering intellectual property, antitrust, class action, and insurance recovery.
Covington brings this multi-faceted approach to its trade secrets practice, with the team collaborating with lawyers experienced in patent, commercial, white collar, privacy, antitrust and employment issues. Services include trade secret assessments, risk management and internal investigations. The team has litigated major trade secret matters in federal and state trial and appellate courts across the US, and before the Federal Trade Commission and the International Trade Commission.
The firm played a leading role in the early stages of federal trade secrets law, having represented the Protect Trade Secrets Coalition of industry leaders in the technology, life sciences, manufacturing, and oil and gas sectors in the legislative effort to enact the 2016 federal Defend Trade Secrets Act.
Team overview:
Covington’s trade secrets team includes members of the firm’s data security, privacy, IP, white collar, employment, corporate, insurance, public policy, and crisis management practices. Together these groups advise clients on protecting business-critical information and litigating trade secret disputes.
Senior counsel Dan Johnson is a key trade secrets practitioner based in Washington, DC. His extensive trial experience has resulted in bench verdicts, jury verdicts and arbitration awards in favour of his clients. These include trial victories in multimillion-dollar trade secret cases, complex business litigation arising from prime-sub relationships, and other business disputes.
Palo Alto-based partner Kurt Calia is recognised as a top trade secrets lawyer in California. His clients are in sectors including the life sciences, biomedical and mechanical devices, aerospace and defence, business methods, microprocessors, and software. He has particularly deep involvement in the aerospace and defence industry.
Recently appointed to the Steering Committee for the Sedona Conference Working Group on trade secrets, special counsel Lily Hines is deemed to be “impressive” by a trade secrets industry peer. Hines focuses on licensing, collaborations and other commercial transactions in which IP, data and technology are vital.
Robert Fram, senior counsel in San Francisco; and Robert Haslam, senior counsel in Silicon Valley, are both recognised as WIPR Leaders and count trade secrets among their practices.
Key matters:
- Insulet v EOFlow et al
Covington represented Korean insulin pump manufacturer EOFlow, defendant in a high-profile Massachusetts federal court case brought by Insulet, which accused its rivals of using its proprietary information in the EO Patch 2 pump.
In December 2024, a jury agreed with Insulet that EOFlow stole trade secrets and awarded $452 million in damages.
However, in April 2025, a US federal judge drastically reduced the award to $59.4 million.
Cooley also represented EOFlow in the case.
- Aristocrat Technologies et al v Light & Wonder et al
Covington represented Aristocrat Technologies in a dispute with Light & Wonder that was settled in January 2026.
This regarding litigation in Australia and the US brought by Aristocrat following the launch of Light & Wonder’s Dragon Train game, which Aristocrat contends was developed using its trade secrets and copyright works. Aristocrat also made later claims against Light & Wonder’s Jewel of the Dragon game.
The parties confirmed that under the settlement, Light & Wonder had agreed to compensate Aristocrat $127.5 million in respect of the claims for misappropriation and infringement of its IP.
Clients:
Aristocrat Technologies, EOFlow
