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Commitments and Contingencies
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2023
Commitments and Contingencies [Abstract]  
Commitments and Contingencies

5. Commitments and Contingencies

 

Indemnities and Guarantees

 

Our bylaws require that we indemnify each of our executive officers and directors for certain events or occurrences arising because of the officer or director serving in such capacity. The term of the indemnification period is for the officer’s or director’s lifetime. The maximum potential amount of future payments we could be required to make under these indemnification agreements is unlimited. However, we have a directors’ and officers’ liability insurance policy that should enable us to recover a portion of any future amounts paid. As a result of our insurance policy coverage, we believe the estimated fair value of these indemnification agreements is minimal and we have no liabilities recorded for these agreements as of September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022.

 

We enter into indemnification provisions under our agreements with other companies in the ordinary course of business, typically with business partners, contractors, customers and landlords. Under these provisions we generally indemnify and hold harmless the indemnified party for losses suffered or incurred by the indemnified party as a result of our activities or, in some cases, as a result of the indemnified party’s activities under the agreement. These indemnification provisions often include indemnifications relating to representations made by us regarding intellectual property rights. These indemnification provisions generally survive termination of the underlying agreement. The maximum potential amount of future payments we could be required to make under these indemnification provisions is unlimited. We have not incurred material costs to defend lawsuits or settle claims related to these indemnification agreements. As a result, we believe the estimated fair value of these agreements is minimal. Accordingly, we have no liabilities recorded for these indemnification provisions as of September 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022.

  

Patent Assignment

 

On May 6, 2019, the Company assigned a portfolio of patents to Aequitas Technologies LLC ("Aequitas"), an unrelated third party. The assignment provides the Company the right to share the potential net proceeds to Aequitas generated from possible licensing and monetization program that Aequitas may enter into. Under the terms of the assignment, net proceeds means gross proceeds less out of pocket expenses and legal fees paid by Aequitas. The Company’s share would also be net of the Company’s own fees and expenses, including a brokerage fee payable by the Company in connection with the original assignment to Aequitas.

 

On June 8, 2020, Neonode Smartphone LLC, an unrelated third party that is a subsidiary of Aequitas (“Aequitas Sub"), filed complaints against Apple and Samsung in the Western District of Texas for infringing two patents. The case against Apple was subsequently transferred to the Northern District of California. In December 2022, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board invalidated one of the two patents, which Aequitas Sub is appealing. On August 2, 2023, the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas entered judgment in favor of Samsung. The case against Apple is still ongoing.

 

Non-Recurring Engineering Development Costs

 

On April 25, 2013, we entered into an Analog Device Development Agreement with an effective date of December 6, 2012 (the “NN1002 Agreement”) with Texas Instruments (“TI”) pursuant to which TI agreed to integrate our intellectual property into an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (“ASIC”). Under the terms of the NN1002 Agreement, we agreed to pay TI $500,000 of non-recurring engineering costs at the rate of $0.25 per ASIC for each of the first 2,000,000 ASICs sold. As of September 30, 2023, we had made no payments to TI under the NN1002 Agreement.