IP Issues in Bankruptcy: Identification, Treatment, Valuation, and Monetization

Course Details
- smart_display Format
On-Demand
- signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level
Intermediate
- work Practice Area
Bankruptcy
- event Date
Thursday, June 26, 2025
- schedule Time
1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT
- timer Program Length
90 minutes
-
This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.
This CLE webinar will discuss the identification, valuation, treatment, and monetization of intellectual property in bankruptcy and restructuring for licensors and licensees, and offer best practices for debtors and non-debtors seeking to protect and get the highest value for their rights in IP in bankruptcy.
Faculty

Mr. Lazerowitz's practice focuses on Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, with a particular emphasis on the technology, mass tort, life sciences, healthcare, and retail sectors. His practice has included representations of creditors’ committees, debtors, distressed asset purchasers, landlords, individual creditors, and secured lenders in Chapter 11 cases. Mr. Lazerowitz also has significant experience handling bankruptcy appeals, investigating and pursuing fraudulent transfers and other causes of action for the benefit of bankruptcy estates, and litigating cutting-edge intellectual property issues that arise in distressed situations.

Mr. Reibman represents clients in intellectual property matters, including patent and trademark preparation and prosecution, IP licensing and corporate transactions, and IP litigation. He has a strong technical and business background and long experience in both patent and trademark prosecution and contentious matters. Mr. Reibman advises clients on IP strategy, setting up or improving IP creation programs, licensing, IP clearance for new products, IP issues and diligence related to corporate transactions, and planning IP enforcement programs. He has also handled many sales and purchases of IP assets, including a number of bankruptcy-related transactions. Mr. Reibman has extensive business experience in software and telecommunication networks and worked eight years at AT&T Bell Laboratories. He frequently represents clients, from high tech startups to large enterprises, who have legal issues related to computer software, hardware, and networks. Relevant computer technologies he has worked with include operating systems, cloud computing, virtualization, databases and data warehousing, fault-tolerant computing, network architecture and routing, wireless LANs, network testing, system and network administration, RAM and flash memory, fault detection, security and encryption, cable television, optoelectronics and optical communication, semiconductors, computer architecture, disk drives and storage architecture, image and signal processing, machine learning and pattern recognition, RFID, fintech, digital advertising and marketing, and online betting and gaming.

Mr. Hitch is an attorney in the firm's Intellectual Property Litigation Group. He concentrates his practice on patent litigation, trademark litigation, and intellectual property counseling. Mr. Hitch frequently represents companies in Hatch-Waxman litigations and other high-profile patent disputes in the District of Delaware. He is a contributor to the ABA’s ANDA Litigation: Strategies and Tactics for Pharmaceutical Patent Litigators, now in its third edition, AIPLA and Bloomberg Law’s Evidence in Patent Cases, the ABA’s Pre-ANDA Litigation: Strategies and Tactics for Developing a Drug Product and Patent Portfolio, and ALFA International’s Business Litigation – Patent Quick Reference Guide. Mr. Hitch is also a co-editor of Biosimilars Litigation and Client Counseling.
Description
Intellectual property is often a business' most critical and most valuable asset, so it is imperative that counsel understand how bankruptcy affects this property, how to value the assets, and how to realize or preserve that value in a distressed situation. The value of the IP and the ability to monetize it in bankruptcy turn on many different factors, for example the nature of the IP itself (not all IP is treated the same), whether the debtor is the licensee or licensor, whether the licenses are exclusive or non-exclusive, and of course whether the license agreement is executory. Jurisdictional differences still exist over whether the debtor can assume and assign licenses.
How easy or profitable it may be to transfer IP assets and the protection afforded the buyer turns a great deal on the license agreement itself, and jurisdictional differences about assignment and assumption. Section 365(n) offers certain protections to non-bankruptcy licensees if the licensor debtor attempts to reject an executory contract, but those protections are not always as useful as they might seem.
Listen as the panel of experienced attorneys discusses IP issues in bankruptcy, including Section 365(n), the treatment and monetization of intellectual property in bankruptcy and restructuring, and recent cases and developments
Outline
I. Identifying valuable intellectual property in bankruptcy
II. Bankruptcy Code definition of intellectual property
A. Traditional IP
B. Newer forms of IP
- NIL
- Memes
- Blockchain
- AI-driven assets
- Tokens
III. Key issues to look for in the license agreements
A. Rights of debtors and counterparties in four recurring fact patterns
- Debtor as licensee under an exclusive IP license
- Debtor as licensee under a non-exclusive IP license
- Debtor as licensor under an exclusive IP license
- Debtor as licensor under a non-exclusive IP license.
B. Section 363 sales
C. Assumption and assignment of IP
IV. Key cases
Benefits
The panel will review these and other important issues:
- What happens if the debtor does not immediately reject an IP agreement?
- What are the risks of selling a license agreement when supply or other material obligations remain with the seller?
- How are new forms of IP treated in bankruptcy?
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