Eighth Circuit Affirms that Perpetual Royalty-Free Trademark License was an Executory Contract

摘要

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently issued an opinion in the first Interstate Bakeries Corporation bankruptcy case (the Interstate case) addressing whether a perpetual royalty-free trademark license constituted an executory contract that could be assumed or rejected in bankruptcy. The Eighth Circuit, in affirming the opinion of the district court, concluded that material obligations remained unperformed by the parties on each side of the license and that as a result, it was an executory contract.