Commitments and Contingencies Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure

3 Months Ended

Apr. 30, 2017

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Text Block]

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 unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements, the Company has other unconditional purchase obligations that arise in the normal course of business operations. The majority of these obligations are related to the purchase of raw material inventory for the Applied Technology and Engineered Films divisions.