Revenue Recognition and Deferred Revenue (Policies)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Revenue Recognition and Deferred Revenue [Abstract]

Revenue from Contract with Customer

Revenue Recognition Accounting Policy

Our revenue is primarily derived from fixed fee license agreements and per-unit royalty agreements, along with less significant revenue earned from development, services and other revenue.

Fixed fee license revenue

We recognize revenue from a fixed fee license agreement when we have satisfied our performance obligations, which typically occurs upon the transfer of rights to our technology upon the execution of the license agreement. However, in certain contracts, we grant a license to our existing patent portfolio at the inception of the license agreement as well as rights to the portfolio as it evolves throughout the contract term. For such arrangements, we have concluded that there are two separate performance obligations:

• Performance Obligation A: to transfer rights to our patent portfolio as it exists when the contract is executed.

• Performance Obligation B: to transfer rights to our patent portfolio as it evolves over the term of the contract, including access to new patent applications that the licensee can benefit from over the term of the contract.

If a fixed fee license agreement contains only Performance Obligation A, we recognize most or all of the revenue from the agreement at the inception of the contract. For fixed fee license agreements that contain both Performance Obligation A and B, we allocate the transaction price based on the standalone price for each of the two performance obligations. We use a number of factors primarily related to the attributes of our patent portfolio to estimate standalone prices related to Performance Obligation A and B. Once the transaction price is allocated, the portion of the transaction price allocable to Performance Obligation A is recognized in the period the license agreement is signed and the customer can benefit from rights provided in the contract. The portion allocable to Performance Obligation B is recognized on a straight-line basis over the contract term. For such contracts, a contract liability account is established and included within Deferred revenue on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets. As the rights and obligations in a contract are interdependent, contract assets and contract liabilities that arise in the same contract are presented on a net basis.

Some of our license agreements contain fixed fees related to past infringements. Such fixed fees are recognized as revenue or recorded as a deduction to our operating expense in the period the license agreement is signed.

Payments for fixed fee license contracts typically are due in full within 30 - 45 days from execution of the contract. From time to time, we enter into a fixed fee license contract with payments due in a number of installments payable throughout the contract term. In such cases, we will determine if a significant financing component exists and if it does, we will recognize revenue and corresponding interest expense or income, as appropriate.

Per-unit Royalty revenue

We record per-unit royalty revenue in the same period in which the licensee’s underlying sales occur. As we generally do not receive the per-unit licensee royalty reports for sales during a given quarter within the time frame that allows us to adequately review the reports and include the actual amounts in our quarterly results for such quarter, we accrue the related revenue based on estimates of our licensees’ underlying sales, subject to certain constraints on our ability to estimate such amounts. We develop such estimates based on a combination of available data including, but not limited to, approved customer forecasts, a lookback at historical royalty reporting for each of our customers, and industry information available for the licensed products.

As a result of accruing per-unit royalty revenue for the quarter based on such estimates, we make adjustments in the following quarter to true-up revenue to the actual amounts reported by our licensees. During the three months ended September 30, 2020, we recorded a $0.3 million adjustment to increase per-unit royalty revenue. This adjustment represents the difference between the actual per-unit royalty revenue for the three months ended June 30, 2020 as reported by our licensees during the three months ended September 30, 2020 and the estimated per-unit royalty revenue for the three months ended June 30, 2020 that we reported during the quarter.

Certain of our per-unit royalty agreements contains a minimum royalty provision which sets forth minimum amounts to be received by us during the contract term. Under Accounting Standard Codification 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, (“ASC 606”), minimum royalties are considered a fixed transaction price to which we have an unconditional right once all other performance obligations, if any, are satisfied. We recognize all minimum royalties as revenue at the inception of the license agreement, or in the period in which all remaining revenue recognition criteria have been met. We account for the unbilled minimum royalties as contract assets on our Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets, and the balance of such contract assets will be reduced by the actual royalties to be reported by the licensee during the contract term until fully utilized, after which point any excess per-unit royalties reported are recognized as revenue. As the rights and obligations in a contract are interdependent, contract assets and contract liabilities that arise in the same contract are presented on a net basis.

Payments of per-unit royalties typically are due within 30 to 60 days from the end of the quarter in which the underlying sales took place.

Development, services, and other revenue

As the performance obligation related to our development, service and other revenue is satisfied over a period of time, we recognize such revenue evenly over the period of performance obligation, which is generally consistent with the contractual term.