Assets of a defunct company

B

Brunner

New Member
Jurisdiction
North Carolina
Greetings all.
I'm Brunner from Central Europe, and I'd like to know how to acquire all intellectual assets from a defunct company which was based in the city of Raleigh in North Carolina, USA. The company in question closed down in 1997. Any ideas?
Many thanks.
 
Brunner said:
Greetings all.
I'm Brunner from Central Europe, and I'd like to know how to acquire all intellectual assets from a defunct company which was based in the city of Raleigh in North Carolina, USA. The company in question closed down in 1997. Any ideas?
Many thanks.
Click to expand...
Find the owner of said Intellectual Assets and make an $$ offer.
 
North Carolina business search.

secretaryofstate.com

North Carolina Secretary of State | Business Entity Search - Secretary of State

The North Carolina Secretary of State business entity search engine gives its users access to the filing details of North Carolina businesses. Naturally, businesses would have had to file with the North Carolina Secretary of State to operate in North Carolina. Such registration will be...
secretaryofstate.com secretaryofstate.com
 
What do you mean by "intellectual assets"? Did you mean intellectual property (e.g., copyrights, trademarks and/or patents)? If so, the answer varies depending on the type of asset.

Was the company a corporation? An LLC? Something else? Do you have any information about the dissolution of this company nearly three decades ago? If it was a corporation or LLC, then a proper dissolution would include the transfer of assets either to creditors or to one or more shareholders/members.
 
It was a corporation, the reason for dissolution I don't know. I was able to find it in the link above, thanks for that.
For intellectual property I mean the copyrights. The company produced aircraft building plans which were sold to the public and I'd like to know if there is a way to acquire the copyright for those plans.
 
In order to acquire ownership of a copyright owned by this defunct corporation, you'll need to ascertain what happened to the corporation's assets when it became defunct.

As I mentioned previously, if a proper dissolution occurred, then the copyrights should have been transferred from the corporation to one or more of its shareholders (or possibly creditors). If that happened, then you'll need to contact the new owner(s) of the copyrights and inquire about buying them.

If no proper dissolution occurred, then the only way to acquire ownership would be to contact the person(s) who owned the corporation see if you can talk him/her/them into reinstating the corporation so that the corporation can then transfer the copyrights to you.

Since you're not in the U.S., you probably should engage the services of an intellectual property attorney in the state where this corporation was located.
 
Obsolescence is relative. People build aircraft which are very obsolete every day. For some, it's one of the main factors which makes them attractive.
 
Now that you have the business record, and presumably the names of individuals from that record, visit the US copyright office website and run searches on the company and individuals' names and see if you come up with anything.

It occurs to me that the designs may have been patented so try the US Patent and Trademark office.

Search Copyright Records: Copyright Public Records Portal | U.S. Copyright Office

Copyright Public Records Portal
www.copyright.gov www.copyright.gov

www.uspto.gov

United States Patent and Trademark Office

Home page of the United States Patent and Trademark Office's main web site.
www.uspto.gov www.uspto.gov
 

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