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COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2014
COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES [Abstract] |
COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES | 13. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES Leases The Company leases various facilities under operating leases expiring through March 2023. At December 31, 2013, the Company's total future minimum lease payments for operating leases amounted to $15.3 million. The Company incurred additional lease commitments of approximately $7.3 million upon the acquisitions of Power Solutions and Connectivity Solutions. 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, 2013, the Company had outstanding purchase orders related to purchases of raw materials in the aggregate amount of $23.4 million and purchase orders related to capital expenditures of $3.0 million. The Company incurred additional commitments upon the acquisitions of Power Solutions and Connectivity Solutions totaling approximately $19.3 million in raw material purchase orders and $0.5 million in capital expenditure commitments. 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, 2013 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 was 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 ("SynQor I case"). 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 initially went to trial in December 2010. A decision was ultimately rendered in November 2013 in favor of the plaintiff, and the Company released a payment to SynQor of $10.9 million. The Company subsequently received a $2.1 million payment from one of its customers related to an indemnification agreement and reimbursement of certain legal fees. 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-verdict 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 II case"). SynQor, Inc. also seeks enhanced damages. The Company has an indemnification agreement in place with one of its customers specifically covering post-verdict damages related to this case. This case went to trial on July 30, 2013. In April 2014, a final judgment was rendered in this case, whereby the Company was assessed an additional $0.7 million in post-verdict damages. This amount was paid by the Company in July 2014 and was subsequently reimbursed by one of its customers under the terms of the indemnification agreement referenced above. SynQor filed an appeal of the final judgment in May 2014, which is currently pending with the CAFC. 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. The Court denied Molex's revised Motion to Dismiss on June 16, 2014. In June 2014, Molex initiated an Inter Partes Review (IPR) at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for one of the three patents associated with this case. The Company and Molex executed an agreement in September 2014 to terminate the IPR and to withdraw one of the patents from the district court litigation. The case continues to proceed in the district court and now involves two of the Company's patents related to integrated magnetic connector products. In connection with the acquisition of Power Solutions, there is an ongoing claim by the Arezzo Revenue Agency in Italy concerning certain tax matters related to what was then Power-One Asia Pacific Electronics Shenzhen Co. Ltd. (now Bel Power Solutions Asia Pacific Electronics Shenzhen Co. Ltd, or "BPS China") for the years 2004 to 2006. In September 2012, the Tax Court of Arezzo ruled in favor of BPS China and cancelled the claim. In February 2013, the Arezzo Revenue Agency filed an appeal of the Tax Court's ruling. The hearing of the appeal was held on October 2, 2014. On October 13, 2014, BPS China was informed of the Regional Tax Commission of Florence ruling which was in favor of the Arezzo Revenue Agency and against BPS China. The estimated liability related to this matter is approximately $12.0 million and has been included in the accompanying condensed consolidated balance sheet. As Bel is fully indemnified in this matter per the terms of the stock purchase agreement with ABB, an offsetting indemnification asset is also reflected in the accompanying condensed consolidated balance sheet at September 30, 2014.

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