Our June 28 post discussed the petition for certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of the First Circuit’s January 12 decision in Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC. We noted that the respondent’s...more
7/13/2018
/ Amicus Briefs ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Chapter 7 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Debtors ,
Executory Contracts ,
INTA ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
IP License ,
Licensees ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
Section 365 ,
Split of Authority ,
Trademark Licenses ,
Trademarks
Our February 22 post (with updates on March 19, April 17 and April 25) reported on a bankruptcy court decision dismissing a voluntary corporate Chapter 11 petition that had not been approved by a preferred stockholder of the...more
Our January 22 post discussed “a long-running issue concerning the treatment of trademark licenses in bankruptcy” and its resolution in the January 12 decision of the First Circuit in Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v....more
Our February 22 post reported that the Franchise Services of North America, Inc. decision of Bankruptcy Judge Edward Ellington of the Southern District of Mississippi dismissing a Chapter 11 petition because a shareholder had...more
4/26/2018
/ Appeals ,
Appellate Briefs ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Chapter 11 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Debtors ,
Filing Requirements ,
Oral Argument ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Shareholders
Our February 22 post reported that the Franchise Services of North America, Inc. decision of Bankruptcy Judge Edward Ellington of the Southern District of Mississippi dismissing a Chapter 11 petition because a shareholder had...more
4/18/2018
/ Appeals ,
Appellate Briefs ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Chapter 11 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Consent ,
Creditors ,
Debtors ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Shareholders
Substantive consolidation is the ultimate disregard of the corporate separateness of a group of related debtors--it is “the effective merger of two or more legally distinct (albeit affiliated) entities into a single debtor...more
Our February 22 post reported that the Franchise Services of North America, Inc. decision of Bankruptcy Judge Edward Ellington of the Southern District of Mississippi dismissing a Chapter 11 petition because a holder of...more
3/20/2018
/ Appeals ,
Appellate Briefs ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Chapter 11 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Corporate Governance ,
Creditors ,
Debtors ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Jurisdiction ,
Veto Rights
Our post last year concerning “[t]he long-running litigation spawned by the leveraged buyout of Tribune Company . . . and the subsequent bankruptcy case” described a case--FTI v. Merit--that was then pending in the Supreme...more
2/28/2018
/ Appeals ,
Avoidable Transfer ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Brokers ,
Buyouts ,
Debtors ,
Financial Institutions ,
Preemption ,
Safe Harbors ,
Section 546(e) ,
Trustees
Back in the day--say, the last two decades of the twentieth century--we bankruptcy lawyers took it largely on faith that the right structural and contractual provisions purporting to confer bankruptcy-remoteness were...more
2/23/2018
/ Appeals ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Chapter 11 ,
Chapter 7 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Creditors ,
Debtors ,
Limited Liability Company (LLC) ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Special Purpose Entities ,
Special Purpose Vehicles
A long-running issue concerning the treatment of trademark licenses in bankruptcy has seen a new milestone with the January 12 decision of the First Circuit in Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC. The issue was...more
When the fallout from failed intellectual-property litigation collides with bankruptcy, the complexities may be dizzying enough, but when the emerging practices and imperatives of litigation financing are imposed on those...more
12/8/2017
/ Attorney Malpractice ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Chapter 11 ,
Chapter 7 ,
Collateral ,
Creditors ,
Debtors ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Litigation Funding ,
Secured Debt ,
Trustees
It is a unique characteristic of debt restructuring under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code that a majority of a class of creditors can accept a modification of the terms of the debts owed to the class members, as provided in...more
On May 3, 2017, the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico filed a voluntary petition for relief on behalf of Puerto Rico in federal court there. The filing required the Chief Justice of the United States...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago has issued a decision with significant implications for licensees of trademarks whose licensors become debtors in bankruptcy. In Sunbeam Products, Inc. v. Chicago...more
11/16/2012