Your customer, who has always paid on time, has started to fall behind on payments and maybe has even started to short pay invoices. When you inquire about what is going on, your customer has a million excuses but assures you that everything is fine. On the one hand, you want to continue to do business with this long-standing customer. On the other hand, you are worried about the growing accounts receivable and a potential bankruptcy filing by your customer. How can you protect your business?
Key Issues
Two recent cases from New Zealand demonstrate how an equitable lien can arise in insolvency to elevate the interest of unsecured purchasers of goods to secured status.
Key takeouts
【東京地判令和５年３月２７日（令和４年（ワ）１８６１０号 商標権に基づく差止請求権不存在確認請求事件）】
【キーワード】
商標権、商標権侵害、実質的違法性、並行輸入、不存在確認請求、破産管財人
【事案の概要】
オンキヨーホームエンターテイメント株式会社（以下、「破産会社」又は「オンキヨー」という。）の破産管財人（以下、「本破産管財人」という場合がある。）が、パイオニア株式会（以下、「被告」という場合がある。）が保有する商標権が付され、香港にある倉庫に保有しているスピーカー等の在庫品（以下、「本件在庫商品」という。）を処分しようと、パイオニアに対し、商標権に基づく差止請求権不存在確認請求訴訟を提起した事案である。 結論としては、本破産管財人が敗訴した。このため、本破産管財人は本件在庫商品を処分（販売）することができず、破産財団の増殖を図ることができなかったと言える。
（※判旨及び本破産管財人のウェブサイトに基づき作成）
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Introduction
A recent Commercial Court decision has raised an intriguing question of private international law: can a foreign judgment be enforced in England and Wales if it is not enforceable in the country where it was given?
The Court of Appeal recently considered when precisely a company had given a preference within the meaning of the Insolvency Act 1986 – a question of timing which may impact on whether an insolvency practitioner can later unwind the preferential treatment for the benefit of creditors as a whole.
Here we look at what a preference is, and when it is deemed to be given.
Preferences
Any restructuring where there are multiple tiers of debt and lenders with different interests and views can be tricky. Lenders will try to anticipate these difficulties by entering into an intercreditor agreement (an ICA) setting each lender’s ranking and rights to enforce. Typically, an ICA will allow the senior lenders at least the option of taking the lead on an enforcement or a restructuring.