The Supreme Court has agreed to review Mission Product Holdings Inc. v. Tempnology LLC, to address a Circuit Split on whether a bankruptcy trustee can terminate a trademark license agreement, thereby allowing a trademark licensee to lose their rights under the license contract. This decision could have a substantial impact on trademark licensees if the Court affirms the First Circuit Court of Appeal’s decision that a licensee loses its right to use a licensor’s trademarks if the licensor has filed a petition for bankruptcy and the trustee elects to reject the agreement pursuant to Section 365(a) of the Bankruptcy Code.
Section 365(a) of the Bankruptcy Code allows a bankruptcy trustee to assume or reject a debtor’s pre-bankruptcy executory contracts, depending on whether the benefits of continued performance of the contract outweigh the burdens to the bankruptcy estate. Under Section 365(a), a rejection is treated as a breach by the debtor if certain conditions are met. While the licensee is entitled to file a claim for damages in the bankruptcy action, that may be insignificant in light of the bankrupt state of the licensor.
However, the Bankruptcy Code does not specifically address the matter at issue before the Supreme Court, which is whether rejection of a trademark license agreement under the Bankruptcy Code strips the licensee of the right to use “trademarks.” While Section 365(n) expressly and specifically protects the rights of “intellectual property” licensees, “trademarks” is not defined in the Bankruptcy Code’s definition of “intellectual property.” In light of this, the First Circuit did not interpret the code’s language of “intellectual property” to include trademarks. Contrastingly, the Seventh Circuit has interpreted “intellectual property” to include trademarks, and therefore held that a licensee’s trademark rights survive any rejections of the agreement by a trustee in bankruptcy. See Sunbeam Prods. v. Chi. Am. Mfg., 686 F.3d 372 (7th Cir. 2012). Of the many actors to file amicus briefs, the U.S. Government appears to agree with the Seventh Circuit’s interpretation, and has taken the position that a trademark owner cannot revoke a licensee’s right to use the trademark via the Bankruptcy Code.
The Supreme Court is expected to begin hearing arguments in the next upcoming months.