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LEGAL PROCEEDINGS AND CONTINGENCIES
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2022
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure Abstract  
LEGAL PROCEEDINGS AND CONTINGENCIES

12. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS AND CONTINGENCIES:

From time to time in the ordinary course of business, the Company becomes involved in lawsuits, or customers and distributors may make claims against the Company. In accordance with ASC 450-10, Contingencies, the Company makes a provision for a liability when it is both probable that a liability has been incurred and the amount of the loss can be reasonably estimated.

On May 16, 2022, the Company entered into a binding settlement agreement (the “Settlement Agreement”) with Opticurrent, LLC, pursuant to which the parties agreed to end all outstanding legal disputes. Neither party granted any licenses to the other. Pursuant to the Settlement Agreement, the Company and Opticurrent have dismissed, withdrawn, and/or terminated all legal proceedings between the parties and the Company agreed to and subsequently paid Opticurrent $2.9 million.

On January 6, 2020, the Company filed a complaint against CogniPower LLC in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware for infringement of two of the Company’s patents and seeking a declaration of non-infringement with respect to patents that CogniPower had charged the Company’s customers with infringing, based on customer use of the Company’s products. In response, CogniPower filed a motion to dismiss the Company’s declaratory judgment claims on the basis that CogniPower had not threatened the Company directly with suit. That motion was granted,

so CogniPower’s claims for infringement initially went forward separately in their lawsuit against the Company’s customers in the District of Delaware, but the Company filed a motion to intervene in that lawsuit and received a ruling allowing the Company to intervene in CogniPower’s customer lawsuit on February 1, 2021, and the parties thereafter agreed to dismiss the Company’s separate lawsuit against CogniPower. The remaining case is currently stayed, but the Company believes it has strong claims and defenses, and intends to vigorously defend itself against CogniPower’s claims against the Company’s technology, with appeals to follow if necessary.

On October 31, 2022, Waverly Licensing LLC filed a complaint against the Company in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. In its complaint, Waverly alleges that the Company is infringing one patent pertaining to charging a battery-operated device. The lawsuit is in its earliest stages, but the Company believes it has strong claims and defenses, and intends to vigorously defend itself against Waverly’s claims against the Company’s technology, with appeals to follow if necessary.

The Company is unable to predict the outcome of legal proceedings with certainty, and there can be no assurance that the Company will prevail in the above-mentioned unsettled litigations. These litigations, whether or not determined in the Company’s favor or settled, will be costly and will divert the efforts and attention of the Company’s management and technical personnel from normal business operations, potentially causing a material adverse effect on the business, financial condition and operating results. Currently, the Company is not able to estimate a loss or a range of loss for the ongoing litigations disclosed above, however adverse determinations in litigation could result in monetary losses, the loss of proprietary rights, subject the Company to significant liabilities, require the Company to seek licenses from third parties or prevent the Company from licensing the technology, any of which could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s business, financial condition and operating results.