Intangible assets - Note 8

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Notes to Financial Statements

Intangible assets - Note 8

8. Intangible assets

Our intangible assets consist entirely of technology-based purchased patents. The patents are amortized using the straight-line method over their estimated period of benefit, ranging from one to 17 years. The gross value of our intangible assets was $2.3 million, $2.3 million, and $58,000 as of December 31, 2011, 2010, and 2009, respectively. Amortization expense was $184,000, $32,000, and $2,000 in 2011, 2010, and 2009, respectively. We estimate that we have no significant residual value related to our intangible assets and no material impairments of intangible assets were identified during any of the periods presented.

In October 2010, we entered into an agreement to purchase a patent portfolio containing 195 patents and patents pending from Motorola, Inc. to complement our current portfolio of pico projection and display patents. Under terms of the agreement we issued approximately 104,000 shares of MicroVision common stock in October 2010, made a cash payment of $220,000 in June 2011 and are obligated to make a final cash payments of $330,000 in June 2012.

The following table outlines the estimated future amortization expense related to intangible assets held at December 31, 2011:

Year ended December 31,		Amount
2012	$	184,000
2013		184,000
2014		184,000
2015		184,000
2016 and thereafter		1,312,000
Total	$	2,048,000