Rebecca Weires Setrakian

Rebecca Weires Setrakian — Patent Litigation Summary

Setrakian is a Los Angeles-based patent litigator at Morrison & Foerster, where she started in the firm's Intellectual Property Litigation Group and is now a member of its Appellate and Supreme Court practice with a focus on patent appeals before the Federal Circuit (MoFo bio). Her case work spans life sciences and electronics: the two tracked matters involve CRISPR gene-editing chemistry (Synthego v. Agilent) and speech-recognition hardware (Zentian v. Apple), and her firm bio also lists biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, computing, and electronics as her areas of experience. Before joining MoFo she clerked for Judge Todd M. Hughes of the Federal Circuit.

Both of her tracked appearances are on the defense side (2 of 2), representing operating companies rather than NPEs/PAEs: Agilent Technologies in Synthego Corp. v. Agilent Techs., Inc., and Apple in Zentian Ltd. v. Apple Inc. In the underlying IPRs her clients' postures varied (Agilent as patent owner defending its patents; Apple as petitioner challenging an NPE's patents), but the consistent thread is defense of large operating companies against patent exposure. In the Zentian matter, she was on MoFo's briefing team for Apple in the Federal Circuit appeals (Nos. 24-2204/2205/2206/2207), which yielded a Rule 36 affirmance in Apple's favor (June 8, 2026) and a stipulated dismissal; the related district court case was transferred from W.D. Tex. to N.D. Cal. She was also listed on the MoFo team for Apple in the consolidated MemoryWeb appeals (Nos. 23-2361, 24-1043, etc.), where the Federal Circuit affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded on eight PGR claims (Dec. 5, 2025) — consistent with her firm bio's statement that she "led briefing for a team that recently won vacatur and remand of a Board decision while successfully defending three related rulings."

Her PTAB/IPR exposure is substantial: all of her tracked matters are IPR/PGR proceedings or appeals of PTAB decisions, and her firm bio notes that she draws on her own Board practice when briefing Board appeals. Her most high-profile matter is Synthego Corp. v. Agilent Techs., Inc. (IPR2022-00402/-00403; Fed. Cir. Nos. 2023-2186/-2187), where the PTAB invalidated all claims of two Agilent CRISPR guide-RNA patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 10,337,001 and 10,900,034), the Federal Circuit affirmed in a June 11, 2025 opinion clarifying that anticipatory prior art need only enable a single embodiment (distinguishing Amgen v. Sanofi), and the Supreme Court denied certiorari in April 2026 — an adverse result for her client, Agilent.

Bar/education: California State Bar (No. 336260, admitted Feb. 2021), USPTO Reg. No. 77895; J.D. from Stanford Law School (co-editor-in-chief, Stanford Technology Law Review) and B.Eng. summa cum laude in biomedical engineering from Vanderbilt. (Note: she should not be confused with Berge Setrakian of DLA Piper, a different attorney.)