Rebecca Edelson

Rebecca (“Bec”) Edelson is a partner in the Intellectual Property and Litigation Practice Groups and leads the firm’s Trade Secrets Team. Bec prides herself in providing creative solutions that meet her clients’ business and budget goals.

Bec represents businesses in intellectual property, unfair competition and injunction matters. She handles all phases of state and federal litigation, including pre-trial development, discovery and motion practice, trials, writs and appeals. She also counsels businesses on how to proactively protect their proprietary rights and information to minimize the risk of litigation.

Bec represents clients in a variety of industries, including the entertainment, aerospace, energy, retail, fashion, financial, medical technology, biotech, computer, database, toy, jewelry, industrial equipment, lighting technology, insurance, food and travel and leisure industries, among others.

Bec routinely publishes and speaks on trade secret issues. She is co-editor and co-author of the treatise, Trade Secret Litigation and Protection in California, published by the State Bar of California, as well as its 2017 supplement on the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA). She also contributed to an English language handbook on trade secret litigation in the United States created for the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China.

Bec served from 2015-2016 on the Board of Directors for the Century City Chamber of Commerce. She also served as the 2004-2005 Chair of the Executive Committee of the Intellectual Property Section of the State Bar of California, and is former Chair of its Trade Secrets and Grants Subcommittees.

Education:

• J.D., University of California – Los Angeles, 1990
• B.A., University of Pennsylvania, 1983

Admissions:

• California
• U. S. Supreme Court
• U.S. District Court for the Northern, Eastern, Central and Southern Districts of California
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin

Representative Matters:

• Litigation
  • Obtained consent judgment for aerospace company in trade secret case against misappropriator shortly after deposing defendant.
  • Favorably settled copyright infringement dispute after persuading Court to deny plaintiff’s request to forego Hague Convention service on client, a foreign content producer.
  • Favorably settled during trial trade secret dispute brought by medical device manufacturer client against former distributor.
  • Obtained temporary restraining order, permanent injunction and monetary award against infringers of client’s copyrights and trademarks of client.
  • Obtained insurance coverage for food manufacturer client from loss arising from contaminated packets of ketchup by persuading arbitrator loss fell within “explosion” exception to coverage exclusions because ketchup packets had burst due to contamination.
• Counseling
  • Advised on measures for client to reduce risk of misappropriation of trade secret information.
  • Advised on measures to reduce likelihood of misappropriation claims against client by member of joint venture that did not go forward.
  • Advised client on revising employee materials (e.g., employment agreement, employee handbook, etc.) to improve client’s ability to enforce trade secret rights.
• Appeals
  • Convinced Court of Appeal to issue writ ordering trial court show why its order permitting service of process on client without Hague Convention compliance should not be vacated. Thereafter, dispute, which concerned perpetual license of certain television programs, settled.
  • Convinced Court of Appeal to affirm judgment awarding real estate investor client over half million dollars in interest based on adversary’s wrongful refusal to return multi-million dollar escrow deposit after adversary terminated transaction.
  • After receiving opening brief on petition of review of denial of asylum, government agreed to reopen asylum proceedings.