Commitments and Contingencies

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2023

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Commitments and Contingencies

Commitments and Contingencies

Purchase Obligations

During the normal course of business, in order to manage manufacturing lead times and help ensure adequate component supply, the Company enters into agreements with contract manufacturers and suppliers that either allow it to procure inventory based upon criteria as defined by the Company or establish the parameters defining the Company’s requirements. In addition, we have entered into software license agreements which are firm commitments and are not cancellable.

As of December 31, 2023, the Company had entered into firm, non-cancelable, and unconditional commitments under such arrangements through 2030. The Company expects to make total payments of $469 million under these arrangements as follows: $131 million in 2024, $78 million in 2025, $73 million in 2026, $66 million in 2027, $63 million in 2028 and $58 million thereafter.

Legal Matters

Hytera Litigation

On March 14, 2017, the Company filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (the "Court") against Hytera Communications Corporation Limited of Shenzhen, China; Hytera America, Inc.; and Hytera Communications America (West), Inc. (collectively, "Hytera"), alleging trade secret theft and copyright infringement and seeking, among other things, injunctive relief, compensatory damages and punitive damages. On February 14, 2020, the Company announced that a jury decided in the Company's favor in its trade secret theft and copyright infringement case. In connection with this verdict, the jury awarded the Company $345.8 million in compensatory damages and $418.8 million in punitive damages, for a total of $764.6 million. In a series of post-trial rulings in 2021, the Court subsequently reduced the judgment to $543.7 million, but also ordered Hytera to pay the Company $51.1 million in pre-judgment interest and $2.6 million in costs, as well as $34.2 million in attorneys' fees. The Company continues to seek collection of the judgment through the ongoing legal process.

On December 17, 2020, the Court held that Hytera must pay the Company a forward-looking reasonable royalty on products that use the Company’s stolen trade secrets, and on December 15, 2021, set royalty rates for Hytera's sale of relevant products from July 1, 2019 forward. On July 5, 2022, the Court ordered that Hytera pay into a third-party escrow on July 31, 2022, the royalties owed to the Company based on the sale of relevant products from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2022. Hytera failed to make the required royalty payment on July 31, 2022. On August 1, 2022, Hytera filed a motion to modify or stay the Court's previous July 5, 2022 royalty order, which the Court denied on July 11, 2023. On August 3, 2022, the Company filed a motion seeking to hold Hytera in civil contempt for violating the royalty order by not making the required royalty payment on July 31, 2022. On August 26, 2023, the Court granted the Company's contempt motion. As a result, on September 1, 2023, Hytera made a payment of $56 million into the third-party escrow. In addition to the September 1, 2023 payment of $56 million, Hytera has made de minimis quarterly royalty payments into the third-party escrow from October 2022 through January 2024. The aggregate amount paid into escrow will not be recognized until all contingencies are resolved and such amount is released from escrow.

Following the February 14, 2020 verdict and judgment in the Company's favor, Hytera subsequently filed several notices of appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (the "Court of Appeals"), including a notice of appeal filed on August 2, 2022 which appealed the orders related to the jury's verdict as well as the Court's royalty order. The Company filed its cross-appeal on August 5, 2022. The Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on the parties' appeals on December 5, 2023.

Hytera Bankruptcy Proceedings

Separate from the Company's litigation with Hytera, on May 27, 2020, Hytera America, Inc. and Hytera Communications America (West), Inc. each filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California (the “Bankruptcy Court”). On February 11, 2022, the Court entered an order to confirm the liquidation plan for the two Hytera entities and the distributions were made on February 25, 2022 to the creditors, including a distribution of $13 million to the Company. On December 22, 2022, an additional distribution of $2 million was made to the Company as well as an assignment of various delinquent accounts receivable of the bankrupt Hytera entities. The gains for the two monetary distributions were recorded to Other charges (income) in the Company's Consolidated Statements of Operations.