From: Robert Hettinga Subject: DCSB: Warren Agin; Bankruptcy and Internet Commerce Assets Date: Tuesday, October 12, 1999 11:59 AM The Digital Commerce Society of Boston Presents Warren Agin Founder, Swiggart & Agin, LLC From Tulips to Technology: Treatment of Electronic Commerce Structures When the Bubble Bursts. Tuesday, November 2nd, 1999 12 - 2 PM The Downtown Harvard Club of Boston One Federal Street, Boston, MA Even as the new economy grows, some companies, like Digicash and Websecure, miss a beat. They find themselves in financial trouble and sometimes bankrupt. When this happens, the most significant remaining asset is the company's patent rights. The bankruptcy process provides opportunities, both for the financially troubled companies and their competitors, to restructure patent portfolios and licenses. It also contains risks. The bankruptcy process can allow technology licensors to force a termination of a patent license and at least one court has held that a company passing through bankruptcy will lose its rights under patent licenses. Managing a patent portfolio requires knowledge of the bankruptcy process and the special issues concerning technology companies. Warren Agin will address how the bankruptcy process treats technology companies and the various licensing and technology structures they use. He will review treatment of patent and software licenses, copyrights, and deal structures like partnering and web-linking agreements. In addition to reviewing the new law being developed in these areas, the talk will focus on the practical aspects of how companies in bankruptcy, or those doing business with a bankrupt company, can use the bankruptcy process to rebuild their business structures and relationships. Warren E. Agin is a founding member of Swiggart & Agin, LLC, a software and Internet boutique in Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Agin's practice focuses in the areas of bankruptcy and insolvency law, corporate law, and computer and Internet law. Representative technology clients include new and established software companies, Internet portals, hardware designers, web site design firms, and system integrators. In the bankruptcy field, Mr. Agin represents both debtors and creditors in a variety of consumer and commercial bankruptcy matters, including technology related bankruptcy matters. Mr. Agin authored BANKRUPTCY AND SECURED LENDING IN CYBERSPACE (Bowne & Co., Inc. 1999), the first treatise to discuss how the Internet is changing bankruptcy law and practice. A contributing editor on intellectual property and technology issues to the Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice, 2d legal treatise, Mr. Agin has written and lectured extensively on the topics of bankruptcy and technology law, including presentations for the American Bar Association, National Business Institute, Boston Bar Association, and Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education. Mr. Agin currently serves as Chair of the American Bar Association's Business Law Section's Electronic Transactions in Bankruptcy Subcommittee (within the Business Bankruptcy Committee) and Vice-Chair of the ABA's Joint Subcommittee on Electronic Financial Services. Locally, he is Chair of the Boston Bar Association's Technology Committee for the Solo & Small Firm Practice Section. This meeting of the Digital Commerce Society of Boston will be held on Tuesday, November 2, 1999, from 12pm - 2pm at the Downtown Branch of the Harvard Club of Boston, on One Federal Street. The price for lunch is $35.00. This price includes lunch, room rental, various A/V hardware, and the speakers' lunch. The Harvard Club *does* have dress code: jackets and ties for men (and no sneakers or jeans), and "appropriate business attire" (whatever that means), for women. Fair warning: since we purchase these luncheons in advance, we will be unable to refund the price of your lunch if the Club finds you in violation of the dress code. We need to receive a company check, or money order, (or, if we *really* know you, a personal check) payable to "The Harvard Club of Boston", by Saturday, October 30th, or you won't be on the list for lunch. Checks payable to anyone else but The Harvard Club of Boston will have to be sent back. Checks should be sent to Robert Hettinga, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02131. Again, they *must* be made payable to "The Harvard Club of Boston", in the amount of $35.00. Please include your e-mail address so that we can send you a confirmation If anyone has questions, or has a problem with these arrangements (We've had to work with glacial A/P departments more than once, for instance), please let us know via e-mail, and we'll see if we can work something out. Upcoming speakers for DCSB are: December Rodney Thayer Cryptographic Transnationality January Elias Israel The Libertarians and Digital Commerce February Suzan Dionne The Law of Digital Cash We are actively searching for future speakers. If you are in Boston on the first Tuesday of the month, and you are a principal in digital commerce, and would like to make a presentation to the Society, please send e-mail to the DCSB Program Committee, care of Robert Hettinga, . For more information about the Digital Commerce Society of Boston, send "info dcsb" in the body of a message to . If you want to subscribe to the DCSB e-mail list, send "subscribe dcsb" in the body of a message to . We look forward to seeing you there! Cheers, Robert Hettinga Moderator, The Digital Commerce Society of Boston ---------------- Robert A. Hettinga The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' For help on using this list (especially unsubscribing), send a message to "dcsb-request@ai.mit.edu" with one line of text: "help".