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Almost every year, changes are made to the set of rules that govern how bankruptcy cases are managed — the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure. The changes address issues identified by an Advisory Committee made up of federal judges, bankruptcy attorneys, and others.

In In re Crumbs Bake Shop, Inc., No. 14-24287 (Bankr. D.N.J., Oct. 31, 2014), Judge Michael B. Kaplan of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey held that trademark licenses may be entitled, under a bankruptcy court's equitable powers, to the protections of Section 365(n) of the United States Bankruptcy Code, 11 U.S.C. § 101 et seq.

Recently, in the case of In re Trump Entertainment Resorts, Bankruptcy No. 14-12103 (Bankr. D. Del. 2014), 2014 Bankr. LEXIS 4439 (Bankr. D. Del. October 20, 2014), the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware addressed the issue of whether a debtor has the authority to reject an expired collective bargaining agreement pursuant to Section 1113 of the Bankruptcy Code.

For years, it has been the rule in the Ninth Circuit that a chapter 11 plan cannot discharge or otherwise affect the obligation of a non-debtor owed to a third party. This view interprets section 524(e) of the Bankruptcy Code, which provides that “the discharge of a debt of the debtor does not affect the liability of any other third entity on, or the property of any other entity for such debt,” to specifically prohibit the permanent release, discharge, or injunction of non-debtors. See 

United States Bankruptcy Courts, particularly in New York and Delaware, are already a destination for multinational corporate bankruptcy filings, but a recent study co-authored by Stephen J. Lubben, a Seton Hall Law School professor and frequent contributor to The New York Times’ DealBook blog, suggests that the current volume of foreign debtors filing in the U.S.

If you doubted it before, you can stop now. The trend of courts finding ways to protect trademark licensees from the harsh effects of losing their trademark license rights in bankruptcy is in full swing.

In a decision that will have profound implications for insolvency professionals of all types, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision that Section 330 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code does not allow applicants to seek compensation in connection with successful defenses to objections to fee applications.

On October 1, a bankruptcy judge ruled that the pension agreement between Stockton, California and Calpers, California’s massive state-run pension fund for public employees, is an executory contract that can be rejected in bankruptcy. Judge Christopher Klein of the Eastern District of California found that California laws designed to protect Calpers from municipal bankruptcies could not be enforced once a city entered bankruptcy.

On Monday, October 6, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order denying the petition for a writ of certiorari in the Jaffe v. Samsung case, also known as the Qimonda case.

Section 503(b)(9) of the Bankruptcy Code provides creditors with an administrative expense priority claim for value of goods that were received by the debtor in the ordinary course within the 20 days prior to the bankruptcy filing Because section 503(b)(9) affords administrative priority status to an otherwise unsecured prepetition claim, it is strictly construed by courts.  Nowhere was this more apparent than in the bankruptcy court’s recent decision in