Note 11 - Commitments and Contingencies

12 Months Ended

Jan. 31, 2017

Notes to Financial Statements

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Text Block]

11. Commitments and Contingencies

Our headquarters are located in Laguna Niguel, California. The lease expired

August

2016

and is now leased by us pursuant to sequential

six

-month extensions. Rental expense for the years ended

January

31,

2017

and

2016

was approximately

$0.2

million, net and

$0.3

million, respectively.

Executive Severance Commitments

We have a severance compensation agreement with our Chief Executive Officer, Thomas Lanni. This agreement requires us to pay Mr. Lanni, in the event of a termination of employment following a change of control of the Company or other circumstances, the amount of his then current annual base salary and the amount of any bonus amount Mr. Lanni would have achieved for the year in which the termination occurs plus the acceleration of unvested options. We have not recorded any liability in the consolidated financial statements for this agreement.

Executive and Board of Directors Compensation

On

November

2,

2013,

the Company approved a deferred compensation plan for its Chief Executive Officer and Board of Directors. As of

January

31,

2017

and

2016,

no

compensation expense has been accrued under this deferred compensation plan as its goal was not achieved.

Legal Contingencies

On

February

13,

2015,

we filed a lawsuit against Best Buy for patent infringement under the patent laws of the United States. The complaint alleges that certain Best Buy power charging products sold in the United States under the Rocketfish brand infringe the Company’s patented intellectual property. Best Buy’s supplier Battery Biz filed a petition with the PTAB requesting an Inter Partes Review. Their request was granted. The parties subsequently settled resulting in a dismissal of the action against Best Buy and termination of the Inter Partes Review.

On

February

3,

2015,

we filed a lawsuit against Apple, Inc. for patent infringement. The complaint alleges that Apple products sold in the United States utilizing the Apple Lightning® power supply adapter system, including most iPad®, iPhone®, and iPod® products, infringe the Company’s patented intellectual property. In

September

of

2015,

Apple filed a petition with the PTAB requesting inter partes review of our

933

Patent. On

February

22,

2017,

the PTAB issued its finding, ruling that Apple had shown, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the claims made by us under the

933

Patent are unpatentable under United States law. We plan to appeal the PTAB’s ruling to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. We estimate that the appeals process will require approximately

12

months to run its course and that we

may

require incremental financing in order to pursue the appeal to conclusion. We currently have no commitments for any additional financing and there can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain requisite financing on acceptable terms, if at all.

In addition to the pending matters described above, we

may,

from time to time, be involved in various legal proceedings incidental to the conduct of our business. We are unable to predict the ultimate outcome of these matters.