Annual report pursuant to Section 13 and 15(d)

Business

v3.22.1
Business
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2021
Accounting Policies [Abstract]  
Business

Note A – Business

 

Network-1 Technologies, Inc. (the “Company”) is engaged in the development, licensing and protection of its intellectual property assets. The Company presently owns ninety-five (95) patents including (i) the Cox patent portfolio (the “Cox Patent Portfolio) relating to enabling technology for identifying media content on the Internet and taking further actions to be performed after such identification; (ii) the M2M/IoT patent portfolio (the “M2M/IoT Patent Portfolio”) relating to, among other things, enabling technology for authenticating, provisioning and using embedded sim cards in next generation IoT, Machine-to-Machine, and other mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets and computers; (iii) the HFT patent portfolio (the “HFT Patent Portfolio”) covering certain advanced technologies relating to high frequency trading, which inventions specifically address technological problems associated with speed and latency and provide critical latency gains in trading systems where the difference between success and failure may be measured in nanoseconds (see Note P[5]); (iv) the Mirror Worlds patent portfolio (the “Mirror Worlds Patent Portfolio”) relating to foundational technologies that enable unified search and indexing, displaying and archiving of documents in a computer system; and (v) the remote power patent (the “Remote Power Patent”) covering delivery of power over Ethernet (PoE) cables for the purpose of remotely powering network devices, such as wireless access ports, IP phones and network based cameras.

Until March 7, 2020, when the Remote Power Patent expired, the Company had been actively engaged in licensing its Remote Power Patent (U.S. Patent No. 6,218,930). As of March 7, 2020, the Company had twenty-seven (27) license agreements with respect to its Remote Power Patent. As a result of the expiration of the Remote Power Patent, the Company no longer receives licensing revenue for its Remote Power Patent for any period subsequent to the expiration date (March 7, 2020). However, subsequent to the expiration date of the Remote Power Patent, the Company received licensing revenue from certain licensees for periods prior to March 7, 2020. On March 30, 2021, the Company entered into an amendment (the “Amendment”) to the Settlement and License Agreement, dated May 25, 2011, between the Company and Cisco (the “Agreement”). Pursuant to the Amendment, Cisco paid $18,691,890 to the Company to resolve a dispute relating to Cisco’s contractual obligation to pay royalties under the Agreement to the Company for the period beginning in the fourth quarter of 2017 through March 7, 2020 (when the Remote Power Patent expired) with respect to licensing the Remote Power Patent (see Note K[2] hereof). In addition, on July 26, 2021, the Company entered into a settlement agreement with Hewlett-Packard pursuant to which Hewlett-Packard paid the Company $17,000,000 in full settlement of a patent litigation involving the Remote Power Patent (see Note K[1] hereof). The Company believes that NETGEAR, Inc. (“Netgear”), another licensee of the Remote Power Patent, is obligated to pay the Company royalties that accrued but were not paid since the fourth quarter of 2017 through March 7, 2020. The Company has pending litigation against Netgear to recover such royalties (see Note K[5] hereof).

The Company’s current strategy includes continuing to pursue licensing opportunities for its intellectual property assets. In addition, the Company continually reviews opportunities to acquire or license additional intellectual property as well as other strategic alternatives. The Company’s patent acquisition and development strategy is to focus on acquiring high quality patents which management believes have the potential to generate significant licensing opportunities as the Company has achieved with respect to its Remote Power Patent and Mirror Worlds Patent Portfolio. In addition, the Company may also enter into strategic relationships with third parties to develop, commercialize, license or otherwise monetize their intellectual property.