Sunbeam Products Inc. v. Chicago American Manufacturing LLC: New Hope for Licensees of Intellectual Property?

The intersection of intellectual property law and the United States Bankruptcy Code has been an area of uncertainty for holders of copyright, patent, and trademark rights. In this article, Mr. Pagay discusses the recent Seventh Circuit opinion in Sunbeam Products, in which the court held that licensed trademark rights survived the rejection of the contract by the bankruptcy trustee. The decision may have broader impact because foreign patents and foreign copyrights, like trademarks, do not appear to be included within the Bankruptcy Code’s definition of “intellectual property.”