LEGAL PROCEEDINGS AND CONTINGENCIES

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

LEGAL PROCEEDINGS AND CONTINGENCIES

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 April 1, 2016, Opticurrent, LLC filed a complaint against the Company in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. In its complaint, Opticurrent alleges that the Company has infringed and is infringing one patent pertaining to transistor switch devices. The Company filed a motion to transfer the case to California, which the Court granted, and the case was assigned to a new judge in San Francisco following the transfer. On December 21, 2018, the Court granted the Company’s challenge to Opticurrent’s damages expert but denied the Company’s motion for summary judgment. Following a trial in February 2019, a jury issued a finding of direct infringement by the Company but found that the Company did not induce infringement, and awarded Opticurrent damages of $6.7 million. The Company challenged those findings in post-trial proceedings, and the Court granted one of the Company’s post-trial motions, reducing the damages award to $1.2 million. Although the Court of Appeals affirmed the original findings and the reduced damages award, the Company believes it has strong defenses, and intends to continue to vigorously defend itself against Opticurrent’s claims, including through a pending motion to set aside the judgment in view of a disclaimer that Opticurrent made during reexamination proceedings, which has been fully briefed and argued, with rulings expected in the coming months.

On June 19, 2019, Opticurrent, LLC filed a follow-on lawsuit accusing more of the Company’s products of infringing the same claim of the same patent asserted in the parties’ prior litigation, as described above. Limited discovery is currently under way, but no schedule has yet been set for expert discovery, dispositive motions, or trial. The Company believes it has strong defenses, and intends to vigorously defend itself against Opticurrent’s claims, with appeals to follow if necessary.

On January 6, 2020, the Company filed a complaint against CogniPower LLC 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 will go forward separately in their lawsuit against the Company’s customers, but the Company has filed a motion to intervene in that lawsuit and expects a ruling in the coming months. The Company’s infringement claims against CogniPower likewise will proceed in a separate action. These cases are in their preliminary stages, 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.

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 litigation 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.