Monday 9 March 2009

IP-friendly UK insolvency practitioners -- who are you?

A UK-based reader who is a legal practitioner writes:
"Do you know of any UK insolvency practitioners who are familiar with the issues relating to intellectual property in the event of insolvency?
... We have put together some advice on what might happen to the IP and the potential risks in the event of the various forms of insolvency procedures etc. We have also given thought to ways of structuring the transaction, and drafting terms which may make the client less vulnerable.
We are now considering factoring in the views and experience of an insolvency practitioner, particularly in relation to the finer details of the insolvency law. Given how topical this is, it is surprisingly difficult to identify someone with the right skills set. Do you have any suggestions?"
Embarrassingly enough, I have to say "no", so I'm turning to readers of this blog to help.  If you are, or know of, any UK insolvency practitioners who have genuine experience of dealing with IP rights -- and I'd like to limit that to "genuine and positively constructive experience of IP rights" -- can you please email me here and I'll publish the list for all to see. Please head the email IP Insolvency so I can easily spot it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You shouldn't be embarrassed to have said "no" - practical experience tells me that the average CxO is a paragon of IP knowledge in comparison to most* UK insolvency practitioners. In many ways this is perhaps not so surprising, but as the recession takes hold it will (or at least 'should') become a more important issue for insolvency practitioners and their IP-centric clients - ultimately IP is an asset like any other.

*I would give an honourable exception to Grant Thornton, who I have found to be at least receptive to investigating IP issues further.