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Abstract
In 1988, Congress passed the Intellectual Property Bankruptcy Protection Act (IPBPA). The IPBPA was codified as 11 U.S.C. Section 365(n) and was passed in response to concerns that licensees of intellectual property were facing harsh outcomes when their respective debtor-licensors entered bankruptcy. Before the codification of Section 365(n), licensees who relied on the use of a debtor-licensor's intellectual property to conduct their business had no ability to prevent the rejection of the licensing agreement by the trustee or debtor-in-possession. Section 365(n) addresses this problem by protecting a licensee from rejection of an intellectual property license by a debtor-licensor. The IPBPA and the codification of Section 365(n) represents a significant step towards protecting non-debtor parties to intellectual property agreements by addressing the difficulties faced by non-debtor licensees. A debtor-licensee attempting to reject an intellectual property license against the licensor's consent currently faces few obstacles within the Bankruptcy Code.