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Although a valid license can provide a complete defense to patent infringement, the tangled web created when the defense is predicated on a sublicensee’s rights following bankruptcy of the sublicensor may preclude resolution at the pleadings stage. This case arose out of an infringement suit between Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (“Fraunhofer”) and Sirius XM Radio (“Sirius”). Fraunhofer, a German research organization, entered into a license in 1998 with Worldspace for a “worldwide, exclusive, irrevocable license with rights to [...]

It's difficult to predict exactly what major legal issues will arise in the next economic cycle, however, we do expect that in the next downturn there will be an increased number of chapter 11 cases, many of which will be marked by disputes among creditors. One of the consequences of "covenant light" debt documents—which have become common again in the market—is that they lack early tripwires that would force companies to confront signs of financial [...]

In In re O'Reilly, 598 B.R. 784 (Bankr. W.D. Pa. 2019), the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania denied the petition of a foreign bankruptcy trustee for recognition under chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code of a debtor's Bahamian bankruptcy case. Although the Bahamian bankruptcy was otherwise eligible for chapter 15 recognition, the U.S. bankruptcy court held that the debtor's "center of main interests" was no longer in the Bahamas when the Bahamian [...]