United States Fourth Circuit

The bankruptcy court's order recognizing a German insolvency proceeding as a foreign main proceeding and a separate order granting plaintiff-insolvency administrator the discretionary relief he requested under 11 U.S.C. section 1521(a)(5), but limiting his ability to reject unilaterally licenses to the debtor's intellectual property by giving licensees the option to retain their rights under the licenses under 11 U.S.C. section 365(n), is affirmed, where: 1) the bankruptcy court properly construed section 1522(a) as requiring the application of a balancing test between the interests of the creditors and other interested entities; and 2) the bankruptcy court reasonably exercised its discretion in balancing the interests of the licensees against the interests of the debtor and finding that application of section 365(n) was necessary to ensure the licensees under debtor's U.S. patents were sufficiently protected.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/03/2013
• Published 12/03/2013

Judges

• NIEMEYER

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel