By: Derek Hawkins//June 19, 2019//
United States Supreme Court
Case Name: Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC,
Case No.: 17-1657
Focus: Bankruptcy – Breach of Contract
Section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code enables a debtor to “reject any executory contract”—meaning a contract that neither party has finished performing. 11 U. S. C. §365(a). The section further provides that a debtor’s rejection of a contract under that authority “constitutes a breach of such contract.” §365(g). Today we consider the meaning of those provisions in the context of a trademark licensing agreement. The question is whether the debtor-licensor’s rejection of that contract deprives the licensee of its rights to use the trademark. We hold it does not. A rejection breaches a contract but does not rescind it. And that means all the rights that would ordinarily survive a contract breach, including those conveyed here, remain in place.
Reversed and remanded
Dissenting: SOTOMAYOR, J., filed a concurring opinion. GORSUCH, J., filed a dissenting opinion.
Concurring: