

NOTE 11	COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

The Company is involved as a party in lawsuits, claims, regulatory inquiries, or disputes arising in the normal course of its business, the potential costs and liability of which cannot be determined at this time. Among these matters is a patent infringement lawsuit in the early stages of litigation. In a lawsuit filed in federal district court in Kansas, Capstan Ag Systems, Inc. has made certain infringement claims against the Company and one of its customers, CNH Industrial America LLC, related to the Applied Technology Division’s Hawkeye^TM nozzle control system. Management does not believe the ultimate outcomes of its legal proceedings are likely to be significant to its results of operations, financial position, or cash flows, except that, because of its preliminary stage, management cannot determine the potential impact, if any, of the patent infringement lawsuit described above.

The Company has insurance policies that provide coverage to various degrees for potential liabilities arising from legal proceedings.

In addition to commitments disclosed elsewhere in the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements, the Company has the following obligations and commitments at January 31, 2017:



	Total		2018		2019 - 2020		2021 - 2022		2023 and After
Unconditional purchase obligations	$	31,976	$	31,976	$	—	$	—	$	—
Postretirement benefits^(a)	18,698		362		737		757		16,842
Credit facility^(b)	699		212		424		63		—
	$	51,373	$	32,550	$	1,161	$	820	$	16,842

^(a)Postretirement benefit amounts represent expected payments on the accumulated postretirement benefit obligation before it is discounted.

^(b)Amounts reflect administrative and unborrowed capacity fees under the credit facility described below.

Purchase obligations consist of those for inventory and other obligations that arise in the normal course of business operations. The majority of these obligations are related to the Applied Technology and Engineered Films divisions and arise from the purchase of raw materials inventory.