Nature of business, basis of presentation and summary of significant accounting policies (Policies)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Basis of presentation

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements of Communication Intelligence Corporation and its subsidiary (the "Company" or "CIC") have been prepared pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("GAAP") for complete consolidated financial statements. In the opinion of management, the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements included in this quarterly report reflect all adjustments (consisting only of normal recurring adjustments) that the Company considers necessary for a fair presentation of its financial position at the dates presented and the Company's results of operations and cash flows for the periods presented. The Company's interim results are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the entire year.

Other accounting standards that have been issued or proposed by the FASB or other standards-setting bodies are not expected to have a material impact on the Company's financial position, results of operations and cash flows.

Comprehensive Income

On January 1, 2012, the Company adopted an accounting standard that modifies the presentation of comprehensive income in the consolidated financial statements. The standard requires an entity to present the total of comprehensive income, the components of net income, and the components of other comprehensive income either in a single continuous statement of comprehensive income or in two separate but consecutive statements. The Company elected the latter presentation option upon adopting this accounting standard. The adoption of this guidance did not have a significant effect on the consolidated financial statements.

Revenue Recognition, Software

For products sold under perpetual license, the Company recognizes revenue upon shipment, provided that persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, collection is determined to be probable, all non-recurring engineering work necessary to enable the Company's product to function within the customer's application has been completed and the Company's product has been delivered according to specifications. For software sold under a term license, the Company recognizes revenue over the term of the license granted. Revenue from customization of software is recognized when all engineering work necessary to enable the Company's products to function within the customer's application has been completed, and the Company has delivered its product according to specifications.

Revenue Recognition, Multiple-deliverable Arrangements

Software license agreements may contain multiple elements, including upgrades and enhancements, products deliverable on a when and if available basis and post contract support.

For arrangements with multiple deliverables the Company allocates consideration at the inception of an arrangement to all of its deliverables based on their relative selling prices. In the absence of the vendor-specific objective evidence or third-party evidence of the selling prices, Management's best estimate of the selling prices is used. For the Company's tangible products containing software and hardware elements that function together and deliver the tangible products' essential functionality, the Company allocates revenue under the multiple-element arrangements revenue recognition guidance discussed above.

Maintenance revenue is recorded for post-contract support and upgrades or enhancements, which is paid for in addition to license fees, and is recognized as costs are incurred or over the support period whichever is longer. For undelivered elements where objective and reliable evidence of fair value does not exist, revenue is deferred and subsequently recognized when delivery has occurred and when fair value has been determined.

Treasury stock

Under the cost method, the gross cost of the shares reacquired is charged to a contra equity account entitled treasury stock. The equity accounts that were credited for the original share issuance (common stock, paid-in capital in excess of par, etc.) remain intact. When the treasury shares are reissued, proceeds in excess of cost are credited to a paid-in capital account. Any deficiency is charged to retained earnings (unless paid-in capital from previous treasury share transactions exists, in which case the deficiency is charged to that account, with any excess charged to retained earnings).

Fair value measurement

The fair value framework requires a categorization of assets and liabilities into three levels based upon the assumptions (inputs) used to price the assets and liabilities. Level 1 provides the most reliable measure of fair value, whereas Level 3 generally requires significant management judgment. The three levels are defined as follows:

Level 1: Unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets and liabilities.

Level 2: Observable inputs other than those included in Level 1. For example, quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities in active markets or quoted prices for identical assets or liabilities in inactive markets.

Level 3: Unobservable inputs reflecting management's own assumptions about the inputs used in pricing the asset or liability.

Patents Impairment

The Company performs intangible asset impairment analysis at least annually in accordance with the relevant accounting guidance. The Company periodically reassesses the lives of its patents and tests for impairment in order to determine whether the book value of each patent exceeds the fair value of each patent. Fair value is determined by estimating future cash flows from the products that are and will be protected by the patents and taking into account the factors listed in Critical Accounting Policies in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Derivatives policy

The Company has determined that certain warrants related to the Company's financings and the embedded conversion feature on the Series A-1 Preferred Stock require liability classification because of certain provisions that may result in an adjustment to the number of shares upon settlement and an adjustment to their exercise or conversion. The fair value of the embedded conversion feature for the Series A-1 Preferred Stock at September 30, 2012, and December 31, 2011, was insignificant.

Net loss per share

The Company calculates net loss per share of both basic net loss per share, which is based on the weighted average number of shares outstanding, and when applicable, diluted income per share, which is based on the weighted average number of shares and dilutive potential shares outstanding.

Share-Based Compensation, valuation

Share-based compensation expense is based on the estimated grant date fair value of the portion of share-based payment awards that are ultimately expected to vest during the period. The grant date fair value of stock-based awards to employees and directors is calculated using the Black-Scholes option pricing model. Forfeitures of share-based payment awards are estimated at the time of grant and revised, if necessary, in subsequent periods if actual forfeitures differ from the estimates.

The weighted-average fair value of stock-based compensation is based on the single option valuation approach. Forfeitures are estimated and it is assumed that no dividends will be declared. The estimated fair value of stock-based compensation awards to employees is amortized using the accrual method over the vesting period of the options. The fair value calculations are based on the following assumptions: