The saga of Central Park Media’s Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings continued Tuesday with more documents submitted relating to the sale of the “Anime Channel” trademark (Reg. No. 2,870,643), which I first reported on last month.
The initial sale approval & effective date was to be March 29th but, prior to that date, Griffin Vance contacted the Trustee on behalf of a different undisclosed client. After some negotiation and discussion with the Trustee, Vance tendered an written offer for $8,000 on April 9th, saying his firm “believe[s] this offer reflects a substantial premium over other available offers and would provide an enhanced recovery for stakeholders vis a vis this asset”. Vance’s law office is located in Houston, TX, so that makes me curious if one of the well-known Texas-based anime distributors put forth this counterbid.
On April 16th, the initial bidder represented by Smith Patent Office (“SPO”) expressed their intention to bid $10,000 for the trademark. Vance was informed about the SPO client’s second bid and Vance’s client “decided not to place any higher bids for the Trademark”.
According to the Supplemental Affidavit of Melissa L. Steinberg in Support of Sale of the trademark (the “Steinberg Affidavit”), Bank of America (“BofA”) holds a secured claim against CPM’s estate and that the trademark is included in BofA’s collateral. Therefore, the net proceeds of the sale will be distributed to BofA pursuant to the 506(c) agreement executed by the Trustee and the bank on April 20th. A revised Order Pursuant was submitted with the Affidavit and stated that the Trustee will forward to SPO a Bill of Sale upon the Trustee’s receipt of $9,000 balance due. (A $1,000 deposit check had been sent to the Trustee on March 10th.) The Trustee is seeking Court approval of the sale so it’s not completely done but the deal seems finalized, unless a higher bid is submitted.
One other document submitted in the case was a Certificate of Service signed by Steinberg and notarized by Stephanie Pender on April 20th, certifying that the Supplemental Affidavit had been served by first class mail to the Office of the US Trustee, CPM’s creditors, Smith Patent Office, and Griffin Vance’s law office.
