COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

Commitments

We lease several of our facilities under operating leases and recognize rent expense on a straight-line basis over the life of the leases.

Future minimum payments under our non-cancelable operating leases at October 3, 2015 are as follows (in thousands):



Fiscal
2016	$	10,805
2017	9,630
2018	7,372
2019	5,590
2020	4,532
Thereafter through 2025	7,924
Total	$	45,853

Rent expense, exclusive of sublease income, was $11.0 million, $11.0 million and $10.8 million in fiscal 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively.

As of October 3, 2015, we had total purchase commitments for inventory of approximately $25.3 million and purchase obligations for fixed assets and services of $9.0 million compared to $23.6 million of purchase commitments for inventory and $6.1 million of purchase obligations for fixed assets and services at September 27, 2014.

Contingencies

We are subject to legal claims and litigation arising in the ordinary course of business, such as product liability, employment or intellectual property claims, including, but not limited to, the matters described below. On May 14, 2013, IMRA America (“Imra”) filed a complaint for patent infringement against two of the Company’s subsidiaries in the Regional Court of Düsseldorf, Germany, captioned In re IMRA America Inc. versus Coherent Kaiserslautern GmbH et. al. 4b O 38/13. The complaint alleges that the use of certain of our lasers infringe upon EP Patent No. 754,103, entitled “Method For Controlling Configuration of Laser Induced Breakdown and Ablation,” issued November 5, 1997 (the "Patent"). The Patent, now expired in all jurisdictions, is owned by the University of Michigan and licensed to Imra. The complaint seeks unspecified compensatory damages, the cost of court proceedings and seeks to permanently enjoin the Company from infringing the Patent in the future. Following the filing of the infringement suit, our subsidiaries filed a separate nullity action with the Federal Patent Court in Munich, Germany requesting that the court hold that the Patent was invalid based on prior art. On October 1, 2015, the Federal Patent Court ruled that the German portion of the Patent was invalid. Imra has the right to appeal this decision to the German Supreme Court. Management has made an accrual with respect to this matter and has determined, based on its current knowledge, that the amount or range of reasonably possible losses in excess of the amounts already accrued, is not reasonably estimable. Although we do not expect that such legal claims and litigation will ultimately have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial position, results of operations or cash flows, an adverse result in one or more matters could negatively affect our results in the period in which they occur.

The United States and many foreign governments impose tariffs and duties on the import and export of certain products we sell. From time to time our duty calculations and payments are audited by government agencies. We are currently under audit in South Korea for customs duties and value added tax for the period March 2009 to March 2014. Although we do not expect that the audit will ultimately have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial position, results of operations or cash flows, an adverse result in this matter could negatively affect our results in the period in which it occurs. As of October 3, 2015, management has accrued an estimated liability of $1.3 million related to this matter.