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Note 10 - Commitments and Contingencies | 3 Months Ended
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Mar. 31, 2025
Notes to Financial Statements |
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Text Block] | Note 10. Commitments and Contingencies Litigation In the ordinary course of our business, from time to time, we have various claims, lawsuits and administrative proceedings that are pending or threatened with respect to commercial, intellectual property and employee matters. Canada Patent Matters ● In July 2018, we filed a patent infringement lawsuit seeking unspecified damages against Kobold Corporation, Kobold Completions Inc. and 2039974 Alberta Ltd. (“Kobold”) in the Federal Court of Canada (“Canada Court”), alleging that Kobold’s fracturing tools and methods infringe on several of our Canadian patents. In July 2019, Kobold filed a counterclaim seeking unspecified damages alleging that our fracturing tools and methods infringe on their patent. The patent infringement litigation against Kobold and their counterclaim was heard in early 2022. In October 2023, the judge rendered a decision against us holding that our asserted patents are invalid and that we are infringing the Kobold asserted patent. The Canada Court ordered us to pay Kobold approximately $1.8 million in costs and disbursements, including taxes payable thereon, and granted an injunction prohibiting us from any further infringement of their patent. This amount was paid to Kobold in November 2023. We believe that applicable law supports strong grounds to appeal the decision by the Canada Court. The appeal was heard in April 2025, and we expect a decision to be granted by late 2025 or early 2026. As we cannot predict with certainty the outcome of the appeal, we believe a loss is reasonably possible, but such a loss is not probable or reasonably estimable as of March 31, 2025. If we do not prevail in the appeal phase, the damages portion would then be decided by the Canada Court and we do not know what damages, if any, will be awarded to Kobold. The damages determination would likely extend for one or more years after the appeals decision. We would expect any damages awarded to be more modest because of the relative ease and minimal cost incurred to implement changes to our product to comply with the injunction, with such changes resulting in no significant commercial impact to date. In July 2024, Kobold filed a motion with the Canada Court regarding whether the injunction allowed us to modify our product or, as Kobold contends, we needed to destroy or deliver the product to Kobold. If the Canada Court agrees with Kobold, a fine or other remedy may be imposed against the Company. ● In April 2020, Kobold filed a separate patent infringement lawsuit seeking unspecified damages against us in the Canada Court, alleging that our fracturing tools infringe on their Canadian patents. In the summary judgment phase, we have successfully dismissed some of the asserted products. However, we were not able to dismiss all of the claims because there remained factual determinations that were not possible in a summary judgment proceeding for our other products. We believe we have strong arguments of invalidity and non-infringement in this matter. We expect the trial for this matter to be heard in late 2026. Other Patent Matters In connection with patent infringement claims regarding U.S. Patent No. 10,465,445 (“the ’445 Patent”), we received favorable jury verdicts against Nine Energy Services, Inc. (“Nine”) and TCO AS (“TCO”) in the Western District of Texas, Waco Division (“Waco District Court”). In January 2022, the jury awarded NCS approximately $0.5 million in damages against Nine, and in August 2022, the jury awarded NCS approximately $1.9 million in damages against TCO. At subsequent hearings in December 2022 and May 2024, respectively, the Waco District Court awarded supplemental damages, interest, and costs, and ordered both Nine and TCO to pay ongoing royalties for their sales of infringing casing flotation devices for the life of the '445 Patent. To date, Nine and TCO have secured over $6.0 million in total for the amounts owed in connection with the judgment. Both parties have appealed their respective decisions. Nine and TCO filed their respective opening appellate briefs in late 2024, and we filed our responses in early 2025. We expect a resolution to these matters in 2026. As the decisions are subject to appeal, we have not recorded any potential gain contingencies associated with these matters in the accompanying condensed consolidated statements of operations. In accordance with GAAP, we accrue for contingencies where the occurrence of a material loss is probable and can be reasonably estimated. Our legal contingencies may increase or decrease, on a matter-by-matter basis, to account for future developments. Although the outcome of any legal proceeding cannot be predicted with any certainty, our assessment of the likely outcome of litigation matters is based on our judgment of a number of factors, including experience with similar matters, past history, precedents, relevant financial information and other evidence and facts specific to each matter.

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