UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Secured Transactions: Supplement on Security Rights in Intellectual Property (2010)

The UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Secured Transactions (the "Guide") provides guidance to legislators with respect to security rights in movable assets in general. The Supplement on Security Rights in Intellectual Property (the "Supplement") complements this guidance with commentary and recommendations dealing specifically with the creation, third-party effectiveness, priority and enforcement (even in the grantor's insolvency) of a security right in intellectual property, as well as with the law applicable to such matters. The overall objective of the Supplement is to facilitate the extension of secured credit to intellectual property right holders using their intellectual property rights as security for credit, without interfering with fundamental policies of intellectual property law.

The commentary of the Supplement explains how law based on the recommendations of the Guide and the Supplement would apply to security rights in intellectual property. With the same goal in mind, the recommendations of the Supplement modify the general recommendations of the Guide as they relate to security rights in intellectual property. The Supplement breaks new ground by:

1. suggesting ways as to how to improve the coordination between secured transactions and intellectual property law;
2. introducing a regime that facilitates the use of intellectual property as security for credit, including secured credit to be used for the acquisition of intellectual property;
3. suggesting ways in which the investment of licensors or licensees in intellectual property may be protected in the case of insolvency; and
4. dealing with applicable law issues in a practical way that is also consistent with intellectual property law.