Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND NATURE OF BUSINESS

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BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND NATURE OF BUSINESS
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2021
BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND NATURE OF BUSINESS  
NOTE A - BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND NATURE OF BUSINESS

[1] BASIS OF PRESENTATION

 

The accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements are unaudited, but, in the opinion of the management of Network-1 Technologies, Inc. (the “Company”), contain all adjustments consisting only of normal recurring items which the Company considers necessary for the fair presentation of the Company’s financial position as of March 31, 2021, and the results of its operations and comprehensive income (loss) for the three month periods ended March 31, 2021 and March 31, 2020, changes in stockholders’ equity for the three month periods ended March 31, 2021 and March 31, 2020, and its cash flows for the three month periods ended March 31, 2021 and March 31, 2020. The unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements included herein have been prepared in accordance with the accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (U.S. GAAP) for interim financial information and the instructions to Form 10-Q and Regulation S-X. Accordingly, certain information and footnote disclosures normally included in the consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP may have been omitted pursuant to such rules and regulations, although management believes that the disclosures are adequate to make the information presented not misleading. These unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2020 included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 31, 2021. The results of operations for the three months ended March 31, 2021 are not necessarily indicative of the results of operations to be expected for the full year.

 

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include accounts of the Company and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Mirror Worlds Technologies, LLC.

 

[2] BUSINESS

 

The Company is engaged in the development, licensing and protection of its intellectual property assets. The Company presently owns eighty-four (84) patents including (i) the remote power patent (the “Remote Power Patent”) covering the 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; (ii) 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; (iii) 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 based on such identification; and (iv) 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.

 

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). As a result of the decision on September 24, 2020 of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to overturn the District Court’s judgment of non-infringement that resulted from the Company’s trial with Hewlett-Packard involving the Remote Power Patent, the Company believed that Cisco Systems, Inc. (“Cisco”), the largest licensee of the Remote Power Patent, was obligated to pay the Company royalties that accrued but were not paid beginning in the fourth quarter of 2017 through the expiration of the Remote Power Patent. 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 $18,692,000 to the Company in April 2021 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 I[2] hereof). The Company also 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 during the same period. The Company has commenced litigation against Netgear (see Note I[5] hereof). In addition, the Company may receive additional revenue related to its Remote Power Patent from Hewlett-Packard depending upon the outcome of the new trial scheduled to commence on August 2, 2021 as a result of the Federal Circuit’s decision in September 2020 (see Note I[1] 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.