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COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2013
COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES [Abstract] |
COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES | 13. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES Leases The Company leases various facilities. Some of these leases require the Company to pay certain executory costs (such as insurance and maintenance). At December 31, 2012, the Company’s total future minimum lease payments for operating leases amounted to $11.5 million. The only significant change since December 31, 2012 relates to the inclusion of lease commitments associated with the 2013 Acquired Companies. At September 30, 2013, the additional lease commitments related to the 2013 Acquired Companies amounted to $3.6 million. Other Commitments The Company submits purchase orders for raw materials to various vendors throughout the year for current production requirements, as well as forecasted requirements. Certain of these purchase orders relate to special purpose material and, as such, the Company may incur penalties if the order is cancelled. At December 31, 2012, the Company had outstanding purchase orders related to purchase of raw materials in the aggregate amount of $18.8 million and purchase orders related to capital expenditures of $1.7 million. The only significant change since December 31, 2012 relates to the inclusion of purchase orders associated with the 2013 Acquired Companies. At September 30, 2013, the Company had additional purchase orders related to the purchase of raw materials of approximately $4.5 million and additional purchase orders related to capital expenditures of $0.5 million associated with the 2013 Acquired Companies. Legal Proceedings The Company is party to a number of legal actions and claims, none of which individually or in the aggregate, in the opinion of management, are expected to have a material adverse effect on the Company’s results of operations or financial position. See the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012 for the details of all of Bel’s material pending lawsuits. Certain developments that have arisen in legal proceedings subsequent to the filing of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K are described below. The Company is a defendant in a lawsuit captioned SynQor, Inc. v. Artesyn Technologies, Inc., et al. brought in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas in November 2007. The plaintiff alleged that eleven defendants, including Bel, infringed its patents covering certain power products. With respect to the Company, the plaintiff claimed that the Company infringed its patents related to unregulated bus converters and/or point-of-load (POL) converters used in intermediate bus architecture power supply systems. The case went to trial in December 2010 and a partial judgment was entered on December 29, 2010 based on the jury verdict. The jury found that certain products of the defendants directly and/or indirectly infringe the SynQor patents. The jury awarded damages of $8.1 million against the Company, which was recorded by the Company as a litigation charge in the consolidated statement of operations in the fourth quarter of 2010. On July 11, 2011, the Court awarded supplemental damages of $2.5 million against the Company. Of this amount, $1.9 million is covered through an indemnification agreement with one of Bel’s customers and the remaining $0.6 million was recorded as an expense by the Company during the second quarter of 2011. During the third quarter of 2011, the Company recorded costs and interest associated with this lawsuit of $0.2 million. A final judgment in the case was entered on August 17, 2011. The Company was in the process of appealing the verdict and judgment and filed a notice of appeal with the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals on October 28, 2011. The Company was advised that the full amount of the damage award plus costs and interest would need to be posted as a supersedeas bond upon filing of the notice of appeal. In November 2011, the Company posted a $13.0 million supersedeas bond to the Court in the Eastern District of Texas while the case was on appeal to the Federal Circuit. The amount of the bond was reflected as restricted cash in the accompanying condensed consolidated balance sheets at September 30, 2013 and December 31, 2012. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) heard oral argument in the SynQor case on October 2, 2012 and issued its opinion on March 13, 2013. In its opinion, the CAFC affirmed the district court’s findings and judgment on all issues up on appeal. The Company and the other Defendants jointly filed a Petition for Rehearing En Banc with the CAFC on April 12, 2013, which was denied by the CAFC on May 14, 2013. The Defendants filed a joint petition for certiorari with the Supreme Court on September 23, 2013. In a related matter, on September 29, 2011, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ordered SynQor, Inc.’s continuing causes of action for post-injunction damages to be severed from the original action and assigned to a new case number. The new action captioned SynQor, Inc. v. Artesyn Technologies, Inc., et al. (Case Number 2:11cv444) is a patent infringement action for damages in the form of lost profits and reasonable royalties for the period beginning January 24, 2011. SynQor, Inc. also seeks enhanced damages. The Company has an indemnification agreement in place with one of its customers specifically covering post-injunction damages related to this case. As a result, the Company does not anticipate that its consolidated statement of operations will be materially impacted by any potential post-injunction damages. This case went to trial on July 30, 2013. The Company is a plaintiff in a lawsuit captioned Bel Fuse Inc. et al. v. Molex Inc. brought in the United District Court of New Jersey in April 2013. The Company claims that Molex infringed three of the Company’s patents related to integrated magnetic connector products. Molex filed a motion to dismiss the complaint on August 6, 2013. The Company filed an amended complaint and response on August 20, 2013. Molex withdrew its original Motion to Dismiss and filed a second, revised Motion to Dismiss on September 6, 2013. The Company filed its response on October 7, 2013.

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