The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware has released its 2022 Annual Report.  The report notes that from 2014 to 2021, intellectual property cases have made up 46% of the court’s civil caseload; for 2021, that figure was 49%, nearly all of which were patent cases. The report is available here.…

Your company has just been served with a preference complaint. The complaint seeks to recover tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, even though your company has already taken a loss on the debtor’s accounts. Your initial response is anger at the unfairness of being sued. Fortunately, under Bankruptcy Code § 547(b), Congress included defenses against…

Where a literal reading yields a result at odds with what the drafters would have reasonably intended (which itself derives from the commercial context evidenced in plain terms throughout the instrument), literal meaning gives way to a more nuanced “objective” meaning. This article explores the application of this key precept in the interpretation of charters and…

District Court of Delaware Announces New 5 PM Filing Deadline On August 16, 2022, the United States District Court for the District of Delaware announced a revision to its Revised Administrative Procedures Governing Filing and Service by Electronic Means to reflect a new filing and service deadline of 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time.  The revision is effective…

Over the past decade, some of the most important aspects of Chapter 11 reorganizations have been sent to mediation with increased frequency. Headline-grabbing cases like The Weinstein Companies, Purdue Pharma and Boy Scouts of America have all turned to mediation to attempt to achieve consensus concerning significant tort, personal injury and abuse claims, while smaller and/or…

The Delaware General Assembly recently enacted amendments to the Delaware Statutory Trust Act (the “DSTA”) which will become effective partially on August 1, 2022 and partially on August 1, 2023.  The amendments make a variety of changes relating to the nature and operation of Delaware statutory trusts (“DSTs”), including amendments (i) adding business development companies to…

In Stream TV Networks v. SeeCubic, the Delaware Supreme Court vacated a permanent injunction imposed by the Delaware Court of Chancery that prohibited Stream TV Networks, Inc. and the Rajan brothers, who collectively held a majority of the company’s stock, from blocking a negotiated transfer of all of Stream’s assets to satisfy its secured creditors. In…

Legislation proposing to amend the Delaware Limited Liability Company Act (LLC Act), the Delaware Revised Uniform Limited Partnership Act (LP Act) and the Delaware Revised Uniform Partnership Act (GP Act) (collectively, the LLC and Partnership Acts) has been introduced to the Delaware General Assembly.  The following is a brief summary of some of the more significant…

Environmental due diligence is a significant component of commercial real estate transactions, and a Phase I environmental site assessment (“ESA”) is the usual starting point for due diligence. Although the Phase I ESA has become a near-commodity, not all assessments are created equal, and understanding the scope of what is (and is not) encompassed by a…

On May 10, 2022, Governor John Carney signed the Healthy Delaware Families Act (“HDFA”), a state-run leave program that will provide paid family and medical leave to most employees in the private sector.  Employees will be able to take advantage of the paid leave benefits beginning January 1, 2026. Generally, the HDFA will require Delaware employers…