When a trademark licensor declares bankruptcy, the trustee may reject the trademark license.   The trademark licensee then can lose its rights to use the licensed trademark, which obviously can be a disaster for the licensee.  The Bankruptcy Code protects patent and copyright licensees from this fate, but perhaps by fiat, trademark licensees were left out.  See 11 U.S.C. § 365(n).

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently addressed in In re XMH Corp., 647 F. 3d 690 (7th Cir. 2011), whether or not trademark licenses are assignable in bankruptcy proceedings. In its ruling, the Court held that a trademark license may not be assigned by a licensee in a bankruptcy proceeding unless there is an express provision in the contract permitting assignment by the licensee.

A recent decision by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals contains two important lessons for anyone drafting documents which contain a trademark license.  In In re XMH Corporation, the Seventh Circuit held that a licensee may not assign a trademark license in a bankruptcy case over the licensor's objection unless there is an expres

With the announcement today that the Swedish automaker Saab has filed for bankruptcy, we thought it timely to take a look at what happens to trademarks in the context of a bankruptcy proceeding.  SAAB is the owner of nearly 100 U.S.

Two fundamental goals of chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code are rehabilitating a debtor’s business and maximizing the value of the debtor’s estate for the benefit of various stakeholders.

The bankruptcy of a licensor can dramatically impact the rights of an intellectual property licensee.

In re MicroBlade, LLC (Bankr. W.D. Wis.) Case no. 11-14981

On September 6, 2011, a bankruptcy court approved an agreement between bankrupt bookseller Borders Group, Inc. (“Borders”) and Next Jump, Inc., (“Next Jump”) regarding Next Jump’s alleged trademark infringement and unauthorized use of Borders’ customer information.  Next Jump stipulated that it will not communicate with persons on Borders’ customer list, and that it would remove the Borders name and marks from websites that Next Jump owns or operates.

The new .XXX top-level domain that launches next month allows brand owners to “opt-out” and block their trademarks from being used in an .XXX domain name.  Trademark owners may apply to reserve their trademarks, so they are not available for others to register in the .XXX domain.

Considering the fate to befall certain trademarks upon an owner’s bankruptcy, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Court determined that a trademark license is not assignable without the owner’s express permission or in the absence of a clause explicitly authorizing assignment and a trademark license cannot be implied from a contract for services.  In re XMH Corp., Case No. 10-2596 (7th Cir. August 2, 2011) (Posner, J.).