What happens to a trademark license when the brand owner goes bankrupt? This is a question to be addressed by the Supreme Court in Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v.
Officers and directors work hard to shepherd their company through bankruptcy. But, even after all that hard work, creditors can still turn around and sue them individually for alleged acts prior to the bankruptcy. What kind of thanks is that? A debtor wishing to protect these hard-working officers and directors may seek to include a third party release in the plan.
Started as a mail-order retailer, evolved to brick-and-mortar stores in urban areas and expanded to a big-box retailer through merger, Sears is now facing the most turbulent time in its history. On October 15, 2018, Sears Holdings Corp.—the holding company of Sears and Kmart—along with its affiliated entities, filed a voluntary Chapter 11 petition in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
In In re Sandia Tobacco Mfrs, Inc., 2018 WL 4964295 (Bankr. D.N.M. Oct. 12, 2018), the Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Mexico recently held that certain outstanding “assessments” arising under the Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act of 2004, 7 U.S.C. §§ 518-519(a), and its accompanying regulations were excise taxes entitled to priority under Section 507(a)(8)(E) of the Bankruptcy Code.
Happy birthday, Aubrey Drake Graham. Most people know Mr. Graham strictly by his middle name. The Canadian rapper Drake has carved out a hugely successful career for himself. He sells lots and lots of records – or whatever it is that they sell in the music business these days. Surprise: Drake’s music isn’t exactly our thing. We still play the Beatles more than anything else, we sing along with Crosby, Stills, & Nash in the car, and we have difficulty naming songs post-dating Nirvana.
Demonstrating heightened enforcement efforts by some state regulators, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed suit against a pair of debt collection companies and their owner, asserting the defendants were operating without a license in violation of state law.
The lawsuit is only the latest example of state attorneys general (AGs) stepping in to fill the void as the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB) has slowed down its enforcement efforts.
What happened
NSC Wholesale Holdings, LLC, along with six affiliates and subsidiaries, has filed a petition for relief under chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Lead Case No. 18-12394).
A June 2018 Bankruptcy Court decision in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) held that foreign companies with no presence in the U.S. were subject to default judgments.
On August 20, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of Illinois in In re I80 Equipment, LLC, No.17-81749, 2018 WL 4006294 (Bankr. C.D. Ill. Aug. 20, 2018) held that a secured party failed to perfect its security interest due to an insufficient description of the collateral listed in its UCC-1 financing statement. The financing statement failed to sufficiently describe the collateral because it referenced the definition of “collateral” in the underlying security agreement without attaching the security agreement to the financing statement.
Mission Product Holdings Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC, No. 17-1657
Section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code provides that a bankruptcy trustee may “assume or reject any executory contract” of the debtor and that “the rejection of an executory contract … constitutes a breach of such contract.” The Supreme Court today granted certiorari to decide whether the decision of a bankruptcy trustee to terminate a debtor’s agreement to license intellectual property thereby terminates the rights of the licensee to use the intellectual property.