ABI Technology & Telecommunications Committee Newsletter

ABI Committee News

ABI's Annual Spring Meeting: Committee Educational Session

ABI's 26th Annual Spring Meeting, the networking and CLE event of 2008, will be held April 3-6 at Washington, D.C.'s Renaissance Hotel in the Nation's Capital! Join us during cherry blossom season for exciting and informative sessions, including a luncheon keynote by Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr.

One of the networking and CLE presentations that you would not want to miss is the joint educational session of the Technology and Telecommunication Committee, the Investment Banking Committee, the Financial Advisors Committee, and the Asset Sales Committee on Friday afternoon, April 4, 2008, from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The presentation will focus on the hidden value of patents and other IP, which is often undiscovered in bankruptcy cases. This program will provide a summary of how to identify and value these assets and how to monetize patents through litigation, licensing, securitization, or an outright sale. The panel will explore leading case studies that reveal strategies for accessing these diamonds in the rough. A handout of five case studies, including Collins & Aikman, Astro Turf, and Tower Records will be provided.

Bonus Presentation: The Investment Banking Committee will provide an up to the minute report on the current state of the capital markets. You won’t want to miss this.

This program will feature a faculty of prominent practitioners:

• Kevin P. Anderson, Wiley Rein LLP; Washington, D.C., a key part of the team that secured on behalf of his client a $612.5 million patent infringement settlement with Research In Motion Ltd. the maker of the BlackBerry device;

• George M. Kelakos, Kelakos Advisors LLC; Greenwich, CT, an investment banker with significant experience in obtaining value for patents and other IP assets; and

• James F. Wallack, Goulston & Storrs, PC; Boston, MA, a bankruptcy lawyer with significant experience in monetizing IP assets.

For more information regarding the program, please contact:

• the Technology and Telecom committee co-chairs William Snyder at william.snyder@crgpartners.com or Jason Gold at jgold@wileyrein.com;

• the Investment Banking committee Scott Victor at jscott.victor@nationalcity.com;

• the Financial Advisors committee co-chairs Stephen Gray at ssg@trgusa.com or David Powlen at dpowlen@wesrespartners.com or Jerry Shapiro at gshapiro@crpllc.net, or

• the Asset Sales committee Chair Weston Anson at wanson@consor.com


Role of the Federal Communications Commission in the Sale of Bankruptcy Assets

Editors: H. Jason Gold, Valerie P. Morrison and Peter D. Shields
Contributing Authors: Robert J. Butler and Kalina Miller

Wiley Rein LLP; Washington D.C. and McLean, Va.

Adapted excerpt from the ABI Bankruptcy Telecommunications Manual, Second Edition (2007), available at www.abiworld.org/abistore.

Written by a team of Bankruptcy & Telecommunications attorneys at Wiley Rein LLP (Washington, D.C. and Tysons Corner, Va.), the Bankruptcy Telecommunications Manual, Second Edition provides an overview of basic bankruptcy law for the telecom professional and basic communication law for the insolvency professional. Updated to include BAPCPA provisions, the manual examines the interrelationship and conflict between the Communications Act and the Bankruptcy Code, covering such issues as discontinuation of service, interconnection, nondiscrimination in delivery of service, transfer and assignment of FCC licenses and more. Statutes and regulatory schemes and an index of key terms are included.

This adapted excerpt highlights the uniqueness of telecom bankruptcies and the need for all participants in such cases to be well versed on the applicability and interplay between the two distinct bodies of applicable federal law—the Bankruptcy Code, on the one hand, and the Communications Act, as amended, on the other.

Click here to read the excerpt.