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What’s Yours is Mine and What’s Mine is For the Benefit of My Creditors: Bankruptcy Courts Remain Reluctant to Impose Constructive Trusts on Debtor Property

There is an inherent tension between the goals of bankruptcy law and the state law doctrine of constructive trust. A central tenet of bankruptcy policy is that similarly situated creditors should be treated equally: because an insolvent business or individual will not be able to pay all creditors in full, a proper bankruptcy system must provide as equitable a distribution to each of them as possible. Constructive trust law, on the other hand, works to the advantage of a single creditor – which always means the detriment of the others when everyone is competing for limited funds.

USA, Insolvency & Restructuring, Litigation, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (Bryan Cave)
U.S. bankruptcy laws may prevent a patent licensor from using foreign bankruptcy proceedings to cancel patent cross-licenses and impose new royalty-bearing licenses

First published in LES Insights

USA, Insolvency & Restructuring, Litigation, Patents, Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP, Bankruptcy, United States bankruptcy court
Seventh Circuit holds that a trademark licensee is permitted to continue using licensed marks despite bankruptcy rejection of the license agreement

An issue of potential concern for any licensee of intellectual property is the possibility of losing that license if its licensor files for bankruptcy protection. For a bankrupt licensor, its intellectual property may be a significant asset that could be sold or otherwise licensed as part of a dissolution or restructuring. But any license on such intellectual property essentially acts as an encumberance on that property that may reduce the value of the asset to a potential purchaser.

USA, Insolvency & Restructuring, Litigation, Trademarks, Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP, Bankruptcy, Seventh Circuit