AstroTurf LLC has filed for bankruptcy protection after a $30 million loss in a patent fight with France’s Tarkett, which makes the rival FieldTurf synthetic-grass product, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The bankruptcy filing is meant to preserve AstroTurf’s ability to challenge the judgment while allowing it to sell its business in a deal that promises a return to creditors. Private equity-owned Sportfield Deutschland Holding GmbH has offered $92.5 million. Court papers indicate AstroTurf will receive only about $16 million of the purchase price if the deal clears bankruptcy court. Other sellers, including AstroTurf owner Textile Management Associates Inc., would collect the rest of the money under the proposed transaction. Court papers say Textile Management controls AstroTurf’s intellectual property and the deal won’t work without it. Textile Management is also AstroTurf’s chief secured lender, owed nearly $38 million. The loan is connected to a promissory note signed in December 2015, less than three months after a jury found the company had infringed a patent controlled by Tarkett’s FieldTurf USA Inc. unit.
