Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2014

Notes to Financial Statements

3. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Basis of Presentation and Principles of Consolidation

The accompanying consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Biospherics Incorporated, Nuta Technology Corp. (“Nuta”), Spherix Portfolio Acquisition I, Inc. (“SPXI”), Spherix Portfolio Acquisition II, Inc. (“SPXII”), Guidance IP, LLC (“Guidance”), CompuFill LLC (“CompuFill”) , Directional IP, LLC (“Directional”) and NNPT, LLC (“NNPT”).  All significant intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.

Use of Estimates

The accompanying consolidated financial statements have been prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“US GAAP”).  This requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect certain reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, and the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the period.  The Company’s significant estimates and assumptions include the recoverability and useful lives of long-lived assets, stock-based compensation, and the valuation allowance related to the Company’s deferred tax assets.  Certain of the Company’s estimates, including the carrying amount of the intangible assets, could be affected by external conditions, including those unique to the Company and general economic conditions.  It is reasonably possible that these external factors could have an effect on the Company’s estimates and could cause actual results to differ from those estimates and assumptions.

Concentration of Cash

The Company maintains cash balances at two financial institutions in checking accounts and money markets.  The Company considers all highly liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less when purchased to be cash and cash equivalents. As of December 31, 2014, the Company had $0.8 million in cash and cash equivalents. The Company has not experienced any losses in such accounts and believes it is not exposed to any significant credit risk on cash.

Marketable Securities

Marketable securities are classified as trading and are carried at fair value. The Company’s marketable securities consist of mutual funds which are value at quoted market prices. The Company invested funds into highly liquid mutual funds during 2014.  During the year ended December 31, 2014, the Company incurred realized and unrealized losses on its investments in marketable securities of $0.49 million and $0.54 million, respectively, which is included in other income, net on the consolidated statements of operations.  In addition, during the year ended December 31, 2014, the Company earned dividend income of $0.92 million, which is included in other income, net on the consolidated statement of operations.  The Company reinvested such dividend income into its marketable securities and at December 31, 2014, its holdings in marketable securities aggregated $3.5 million.  No marketable securities were held in 2013.  The cost of marketable securities held as of December 31, 2014 was $3.55 million

Intangible Assets – Patent Portfolios

Intangible assets include the Company’s patent portfolios with original estimated useful lives ranging from six months to 12 years.  The Company amortizes the cost of the intangible assets over their estimated useful lives on a straight-line basis. Costs incurred to acquire patents, including legal costs, are also capitalized as long-lived assets and amortized on a straight-line basis with the associated patent.  

Patents include the cost of patents or patent rights (hereinafter, collectively “patents”) acquired from third-parties or acquired in connection with business combinations.  Patent acquisition costs are amortized utilizing the straight-line method over their remaining economic useful lives, ranging from one to ten years. Certain patent application and prosecution costs incurred to secure additional patent claims, that based on management’s estimates are deemed to be recoverable, are capitalized and amortized over the remaining estimated economic useful life of the related patent portfolio.

Goodwill

Goodwill is the excess of cost of an acquired entity over the fair value of amounts assigned to assets acquired and liabilities assumed in a business combination. Goodwill is subject to impairment testing at least annually and will be tested for impairment between annual tests if an event occurs or circumstances changes that indicate the carrying amount may be impaired. ASC Topic 350 provides an entity with the option to first assess qualitative factors to determine whether the existence of events or circumstances leads to a determination that it is more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount. If, after assessing the totality of events or circumstances, an entity determines it is not more likely than not that the fair value of a reporting unit is less than its carrying amount, then performing the two-step impairment test is unnecessary. If the two-step impairment test is necessary, a fair-value-based test is applied at the reporting unit level, which is generally one level below the operating segment level. The test compares the fair value of an entity's reporting units to the carrying value of those reporting units. This test requires various judgments and estimates.

The Company estimates the fair value of the reporting unit using a market approach in combination with a discounted operating cash flow approach. Impairment of goodwill is measured as the excess of the carrying amount of goodwill over the fair values of recognized and unrecognized assets and liabilities of the reporting unit. An adjustment to goodwill will be recorded for any goodwill that is determined to be impaired. The Company tests goodwill for impairment at least annually in conjunction with the preparation of its annual business plan, or more frequently if events or circumstances indicate it might be impaired. ASU 2010-28 modifies Step 1 of the goodwill impairment test for reporting units with zero or negative carrying amounts. For those reporting units, an entity is required to perform Step 2 of the goodwill impairment test if it is more likely than not that a goodwill impairment exists.  In determining whether it is more likely than not that goodwill impairment exists, an entity should consider whether there are any adverse qualitative factors indicating that impairment may exist.

Impairment of Long-lived Assets (Including Patent Assets)

The Company monitors the carrying value of long-lived assets for potential impairment and tests the recoverability of such assets whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amounts may not be recoverable. If a change in circumstance occurs, the Company performs a test of recoverability by comparing the carrying value of the asset or asset group to its undiscounted expected future cash flows. If cash flows cannot be separately and independently identified for a single asset, the Company will determine whether impairment has occurred for the group of assets for which the Company can identify the projected cash flows. If the carrying values are in excess of undiscounted expected future cash flows, the Company measures any impairment by comparing the fair value of the asset or asset group to its carrying value. The Company deemed there was no impairment of long-lived assets during the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013.

Property and Equipment

Property and equipment are stated at cost and include office furniture and equipment and computer hardware and software in 2014. The Company computes depreciation and amortization under the straight-line method and typically over the following estimated useful lives of the related assets:

·	Office furniture and equipment	3 to 10 years
·	Computer hardware and software	3 to 5 years

Revenue Recognition

Revenue is recognized when persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, delivery of the product or service has occurred, all obligations have been performed pursuant to the terms of the agreement, the sales price is fixed or determinable, and collectability is reasonably assured.  Revenue from the licensing of the Company’s intellectual property  and settlements reached from legal enforcement of the Company’s patent rights is recognized when the arrangement with the licensee has been signed and the license has been delivered and made effective, provided license fees are fixed or determinable and collectability is reasonably assured.  The fair value of licenses achieved by ordinary business negotiations is recognized as other income.

The amount of consideration received upon any settlement or judgment is allocated to each element of the settlement based on the fair value of each element.  Elements related to licensing agreements and royalty revenues, net of contingent legal fees, are recognized as revenue in the consolidated statement of operations.  Elements that are not related to license agreements and royalty revenue in nature will be reflected as a separate line item within the other income section of the consolidated statements of operations.  Elements provided in either settlement agreements or judgments include: the value of a license, legal release, and interest.  When settlements or judgments are achieved at discounts to the fair value of a license, the Company allocates the full settlement or judgment, excluding specifically named elements as mentioned above, to the value of the license agreement or royalty revenue under the residual method. Legal release as part of a settlement agreement is recognized as a separate line item in the consolidated statements of operations when value can be allocated to the legal release.  When the Company reaches a settlement with a defendant, no value is allocated to the legal release since the existence of a settlement removes legal standing to bring a claim of infringement and without a legal claim; the legal release has no economic value.  The element that is applicable to interest income will be recorded as a separate line item in other income. The Company does not assume future performance obligations in its license arrangements.  Revenue from the monetization of the Company’s intellectual property during the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013 was not significant.

Cost of Revenues

Cost of revenues include the costs and expenses incurred in connection with the Company’s patent enforcement activities, including inventor royalties paid to original patent owners, contingent legal fees paid to external patent counsel, other patent-related legal expenses paid to external patent counsel, licensing and enforcement related research, consulting and other expenses paid to third parties and the amortization of patent-related acquisition costs.

Inventor Royalties and Contingent Legal Expenses

Inventor royalties are expensed in the period that the related revenues are recognized. In certain instances, pursuant to the terms of the underlying inventor agreements, costs paid by the Company to acquire patents are recoverable from future net revenues. Patent acquisition costs that are recoverable from future net revenues are amortized over the estimated economic useful life of the related patents, or as the prepaid royalties are earned by the inventor, as appropriate, and the related expense is included in amortization expense.

Contingent legal fees are expensed in the period that the related revenues are recognized. In instances where there are no recoveries from potential infringers, no contingent legal fees are paid; however, the Company may be liable for certain out of pocket legal costs incurred pursuant to the underlying legal services agreement. Legal fees advanced by contingent law firms that are required to be paid in the event that no license recoveries are obtained are expensed as incurred.

Contingent Legal Fees

Contingent legal and consulting fees are expensed in the period that the related revenues or other income are recognized. In instances where there are no recoveries from potential infringers, no contingent legal and consulting fees are required to be paid; however, the Company may be liable for certain out of pocket legal and consulting costs incurred pursuant to the underlying legal and consulting services agreement. Legal fees advanced by contingent law firms, if any, that are required to be paid in the event that no license recoveries are obtained are expensed as incurred and included in liabilities.

Accounting for Warrants

The Company accounts for the issuance of common stock purchase warrants issued in connection with the equity offerings in accordance with the provisions of ASC 815, Derivatives and Hedging (“ASC 815”).  The Company classifies as equity any contracts that (i) require physical settlement or net-share settlement or (ii) gives the Company a choice of net-cash settlement or settlement in its own shares (physical settlement or net-share settlement).  The Company classifies as assets or liabilities any contracts that (i) require net-cash settlement (including a requirement to net-cash settle the contract if an event occurs and if that event is outside the control of the Company) or (ii) gives the counterparty a choice of net-cash settlement or settlement in shares (physical settlement or net-share settlement).

The Company assessed the classification of its common stock purchase warrants as of the date of each offering and determined that such instruments met the criteria for liability classification.  The warrants are reported on the consolidated balance sheet as a liability at fair value using the Black-Scholes valuation method.  Changes in the estimated fair value of the warrants result in the recognition of other income or expense.

Fair Value of Financial Instruments

Financial instruments, including cash and cash equivalents, accounts and other receivables, accounts payable and accrued liabilities are carried at cost, which management believes approximates fair value due to the short-term nature of these instruments. The Company measures the fair value of financial assets and liabilities based on the exchange price that would be received for an asset or paid to transfer a liability (an exit price) in the principal or most advantageous market for the asset or liability in an orderly transaction between market participants on the measurement date. The Company maximizes the use of observable inputs and minimizes the use of unobservable inputs when measuring fair value.

The Company uses three levels of inputs that may be used to measure fair value:

Level 1 — quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities

Level 2 — quoted prices for similar assets and liabilities in active markets or inputs that are observable

Level 3 — inputs that are unobservable (for example, cash flow modeling inputs based on assumptions)

Income Taxes

The Company uses the asset and liability method of accounting for income taxes in accordance with ASC 740, “Income Taxes” (“ASC 740”). Under this method, income tax expense is recognized as the amount of: (i) taxes payable or refundable for the current year and (ii) deferred tax consequences of temporary difference resulting from matters that have been recognized in the Company’s financial statement or tax returns. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using enacted tax rates expected to apply to taxable income in the years which those temporary differences are expected to be recovered or settled. The effect on deferred tax assets and liabilities of a change in tax rates is recognized in the results of operations in the period that includes the enactment date. A valuation allowance is provided to reduce the deferred tax assets reported if based on the weight of available evidence it is more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized.

Net Loss per Share

Basic loss per share is computed by dividing the net income or loss applicable to common shares by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding during the period. Diluted earnings per share is computed using the weighted average number of common shares and, if dilutive, potential common shares outstanding during the period. Potential common shares consist of the incremental common shares issuable upon the exercise of stock options (using the treasury stock method) and the conversion of the Company’s convertible preferred stock and warrants (using the if-converted method). Diluted loss per share excludes the shares issuable upon the conversion of preferred stock and the exercise of stock options and warrants from the calculation of net loss per share if their effect would be anti-dilutive.

Securities that could potentially dilute loss per share in the future that were not included in the computation of diluted loss per share at December 31, 2014 and 2013 are as follows:

	As of December 31,
	2014		2013
Convertible preferred stock		5,156,841		20,010,352
Warrants to purchase common stock		769,803		65,263
Options to purchase common stock		5,298,877		2,013,876
Total		11,225,521		22,089,491

Stock-based Compensation

The Company accounts for share-based payment awards exchanged for employee services at the estimated grant date fair value of the award.  Stock options issued under the Company’s long-term incentive plans are granted with an exercise price equal to no less than the market price of the Company’s stock at the date of grant and expire up to ten years from the date of grant.  These options generally vest over a four- to ten-year period.

The fair value of stock options granted was determined on the grant date using assumptions for risk free interest rate, the expected term, expected volatility, and expected dividend yield.  The risk free interest rate is based on U.S. Treasury zero-coupon yield curve over the expected term of the option.  The expected term assumption is determined using the weighted average midpoint between vest and expiration for all individuals within the grant.  The expected volatility assumption is computed based on a comparison of average volatility rates of similar companies.

The Company’s model includes a zero dividend yield assumption, as the Company has not historically paid nor does it anticipate paying dividends on its common stock.  The Company’s model does not include a discount for post-vesting restrictions, as the Company has not issued awards with such restrictions.

The periodic expense is then determined based on the valuation of the options, and at that time an estimated forfeiture rate is used to reduce the expense recorded.  The Company estimates of pre-vesting forfeitures is primarily based on the Company’s historical experience and is adjusted to reflect actual forfeitures as the options vest.

Treasury Stock

The Company accounts for the treasury stock using the cost method, which treats it as a reduction in stockholders’ equity. In February 2014, the Company retired 173 shares of treasury stock.

Preferred Stock

The Company applies the accounting standards for distinguishing liabilities from equity when determining the classification and measurement of its preferred stock. Preferred shares subject to mandatory redemption are classified as liability instruments and are measured at fair value. Conditionally redeemable preferred shares (including preferred shares that feature redemption rights that are either within the control of the holder or subject to redemption upon the occurrence of uncertain events not solely within the Company’s control) are classified as temporary equity. At all other times, preferred shares are classified as stockholders’ equity.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) has issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) No. 2014-12, Compensation - Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Accounting for Share-Based Payments When the Terms of an Award Provide That a Performance Target Could Be Achieved after the Requisite Service Period. This ASU requires that a performance target that affects vesting, and that could be achieved after the requisite service period, be treated as a performance condition. As such, the performance target should not be reflected in estimating the grant date fair value of the award. This update further clarifies that compensation cost should be recognized in the period in which it becomes probable that the performance target will be achieved and should represent the compensation cost attributable to the period(s) for which the requisite service has already been rendered. The amendments in this ASU are effective for annual periods and interim periods within those annual periods beginning after December 15, 2015. Earlier adoption is permitted. The adoption of this standard is not expected to have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial position and results of operations.

The FASB has issued ASU No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers. This ASU supersedes the revenue recognition requirements in Accounting Standards Codification 605 - Revenue Recognition and most industry-specific guidance throughout the Codification. The standard requires that an entity recognizes revenue to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the company expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. This ASU is effective on January 1, 2017 and should be applied retrospectively to each prior reporting period presented or retrospectively with the cumulative effect of initially applying the ASU recognized at the date of initial application.  The adoption of this standard is not expected to have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial position and results of operations. 

The FASB issued ASU 2014-15 on “Presentation of Financial Statements Going Concern (Subtopic 205-40) - Disclosure of Uncertainties about an Entity’s Ability to Continue as a Going Concern”. Currently, there is no guidance in U.S. GAAP about management’s responsibility to evaluate whether there is substantial doubt about an entity’s ability to continue as a going concern or to provide related footnote disclosures. The amendments in this ASU provide that guidance. In doing so, the amendments are intended to reduce diversity in the timing and content of footnote disclosures. The amendments require management to assess an entity’s ability to continue as a going concern by incorporating and expanding upon certain principles that are currently in U.S. auditing standards. Specifically, the amendments (1) provide a definition of the term substantial doubt, (2) require an evaluation every reporting period including interim periods, (3) provide principles for considering the mitigating effect of management’s plans, (4) require certain disclosures when substantial doubt is alleviated as a result of consideration of management’s plans, (5) require an express statement and other disclosures when substantial doubt is not alleviated, and (6) require an assessment for a period of one year after the date that the financial statements are issued (or available to be issued). The amendments in this ASU are effective for public and nonpublic entities for annual periods ending after December 15, 2016. Early adoption is permitted.  The Company has elected to early adopt the provisions of ASU 2014-15 during the year ended December 31, 2014.  Management’s evaluations regarding the events and conditions that raise substantial doubt regarding the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern have been disclosed in Note 2.