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Trademark licensees have long faced the serious risk of losing all license rights to a trademark if the licensor files bankruptcy and rejects the trademark license as an executory contract. However, a recent decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in the In re: Exide Technologies case may give some trademark licensees…

Many companies rely on in-bound licenses of intellectual property, especially those involving patents or trade secrets, and spend millions of dollars on research, development, and ultimately commercialization of drugs or products incorporating the licensed IP. With so much at stake, licensees frequently ask a critical question: Can our license rights be terminated if the licensor…

It looks like the U.S. Supreme Court, or at least two of the Justices, is interested in deciding whether the "hypothetical test" or the "actual test" should be used in determining whether an intellectual property license can be assumed by a debtor in possession under Section 365(c)(1) of the Bankruptcy Code. That was the clear message from the somewhat…

Over a year ago, I posted on a first of its kind decision in In re: N.C.P. Marketing Group, Inc., 337 B.R. 230 (D.Nev. 2005), in which the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada held that trademark licenses are personal and nonassignable absent a provision in the trademark license to the contrary. Click here…

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has jurisdiction over, among other areas, patent appeals, so it’s not every day that a Federal Circuit decision appears on this business bankruptcy blog. (Actually, it’s been about a year since this post discussing another Federal Circuit decision.) However, a September 19, 2007 opinion (…

Intellectual property licenses continue to be significant to companies across a wide range of industries. This fact makes their treatment in business bankruptcy cases a topic of keen interest. 

Can A Debtor Licensee Retain IP License Rights? When the debtor in possession is a licensee under a patent, copyright, or trademark license, a key question arises: Can…

Once again, a district court has faced the issue of whether a non-exclusive trademark license can be assumed by a debtor in possession. Before the November 2005 decision in In re: N.C.P. Marketing Group, Inc., 337 B.R. 230 (D.Nev. 2005), no court had directly addressed that question. The decision in the N.C.P. Marketing case…