Sunbeam Products, Inc. v. Chicago American Manufacturing, LLC20 In the Sunbeam Products case, the Seventh Circuit held that a trademark licensee could continue to use a trademark after the license was rejected by the debtorlicensor, even though the protections of section 365(n) of the Bankruptcy Code do not extend to licensees of trademarks.
The German Insolvency Code requires the management of German limited liability companies (GmbH), stock corporations (AG) and other entities without personal liability to file for the commencement of insolvency proceedings no later than three weeks after the entity has become illiquid (zahlungsunfähig) or overindebted (überschuldet).
New insolvency proceedings called “accelerated financial safeguard” (sauvegarde financière accélérée) were introduced into French law two years ago1.
In a case originating out of bankruptcy court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed the bankruptcy court’s finding that a perpetual, royalty free, assignable, transferable, exclusive license granted as part of the sale of the business operations, assets and intellectual property associated with two bread baking brands was an executory contract. Lewis Bros. Bakeries Inc. v. Interstate Brands Corp., Case No. 11-1850 (8th Cir., Aug. 30, 2012) (Bye, J.).
During an American Bar Association (ABA) program on antitrust and health care issues on October 1, 2012, U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Deputy Director for Health Care and Antitrust, Leemore Dafny, said that the FTC will focus on how patients purportedly react to price increases, as measured by "diversion ratios," when deciding which hospital mergers to investigate further for potential anticompetitive effects.
The Spanish Council of Ministers has approved the Royal Decree Law 24/2012 (the RDL 24/2012), for the restructuring and termination of Spanish credit entities. This RDL entered into force on 31 August 2012.
To successfully reorganize in Chapter 11, a bankrupt company may need to retain key employees who understand the company’s business and who can design and implement the company’s reorganization plan. Retaining and properly incentivizing these employees during a Chapter 11 case can be challenging for a number of reasons.
Taxpayers that engaged in transactions under §381(a), including tax-free liquidations under §332 and certain tax-free reorganizations under §361, previously could not change their methods of accounting for the year of the transaction using the automatic consent procedures under Rev. Proc. 2011-14, 2011-1 C.B.
Judges Kevin Carey and Mary Walrath of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware issued opinions in In re Tribune Co.1 and In re JER/Jameson Mezz Borrower II, LLC2, respectively, that shake up the landscape for restructuring real estate investments with multiple layers of debt.
On August 28, 2012, the Special Tribunal related to Dubai World (the “Tribunal”) formally approved the restructuring of more than US$2 billion of debt of Drydocks World LLC and Drydocks World – Dubai LLC (together, “Drydocks”) under a syndicated term loan facility and separate hedging agreements, in the first restructuring approved under Dubai Decree No.