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BUSINESS AND FUNDING | 9 Months Ended
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Jul. 31, 2013
Accounting Policies [Abstract] |
Organization, Consolidation, Basis of Presentation, Business Description and Accounting Policies [Text Block] | 1. BUSINESS AND FUNDING Description of Business and Basis of Presentation As used herein, “we,” “us,” “our,” the “Company” and “CopyTele” refers to CopyTele, Inc. Our principal operations include the development, acquisition, licensing, and enforcement of patented technologies. While in the past, the primary operations of the Company involved licensing in connection with the development of patented technologies, the primary operations of the Company are now patent monetization, and patent assertion, in connection with the unauthorized use of patented technologies that are either owned or controlled by the Company or one of its wholly owned subsidiaries. As part of our patent assertion activities in the ordinary course of business, the Company, or our wholly owned subsidiaries, will likely initiate patent infringement lawsuits, and engage in patent infringement litigation. In addition to continuing to mine and monetize our existing patents, our wholly owned subsidiary, CTI Patent Acquisition Corporation will continue to acquire patents and the exclusive rights to exclusively license and enforce patents from third parties. The changes in the primary operations of the Company included elimination of product development efforts, accordingly, we are no longer incurring research and development expenses. Due to arrangements previously entered into by the Company, certain of our patents contain encumbrances which may negatively impact our patent monetization and patent assertion activities. Where we are able, we will take the steps necessary to remove any encumbrances that may inhibit our patent monetization and patent assertion efforts. We have obtained and will continue to obtain the rights to license and enforce additional patents from third parties, and when necessary, will assist such parties in the further development of their patent portfolios through the filing of additional patent applications. During the second quarter of fiscal year 2013, CopyTele, through its wholly owned subsidiary, CTI Patent Acquisition Corporation, acquired the exclusive rights to license and enforce two patent portfolios relating to (i) loyalty awards programs commonly provided by airlines, credit card companies, hotels, retailers, casinos, and others, and (ii) window frames with integrated J-Channels, commonly used in manufactured housing and replacement windows. In exchange, the respective licensors will receive a percentage of all net amounts received from the licensing and enforcement of each patent portfolio. In accordance with ASC 845-10-30-8, management determined that neither the fair value of the nonmonetary assets transferred nor the fair value of a nonmonetary assets received in exchange were determinable within reasonable limits, and therefore, no amounts have been reflected in the accompanying financial statements related to the acquisition of these two patent portfolios. As a result of these acquisitions, we currently own or control 6 patent portfolios which we have identified for patent monetization: ePaper® Electrophoretic Display (“EPD”); Nano Field Emission Display (“nFED”); Key Based Web Conferencing Encryption (“KB Encryption”); J-Channel Window Frame Construction (“J-Channel”); Loyalty Conversion Systems (“LCS”); and Micro Electro Mechanical Systems Display (“MEMS”). During the first quarter of fiscal year 2013, we initiated lawsuits against AU Optronics Corp. and E Ink Corporation in connection with our EPD and nFED patent portfolios. During the third quarter of fiscal year 2013, we launched a patent assertion program in connection with our KB Encryption patent portfolio, and filed patent infringement lawsuits against Microsoft Corporation in connection with its SKYPE and Lync, web conferencing services, Citrix Systems, Inc. in connection with its GoTo Meeting, GoTo Training, and GoTo Webinar web conferencing services, and Logitech, Inc, in connection with its LifeSize web conferencing services. Subsequent to July 31, 2013, we initiated our third patent assertion program by filing 8 patent infringement lawsuits related to our J-Channel patent portfolio against Lowe’s Companies, Inc., Clayton Homes, Inc., Pella Corporation, Jeld-Wen, Inc., Atrium Windows and Doors, Inc., Ply Gem Industries, Inc., RGF Industries, Inc., Tafco Corporation, Kinro Manufacturing, Inc. and Elixir Industries, Inc. Also subsequent to July 31, 2013, we initiated our fourth patent assertion program by filing 10 patent infringement lawsuits related to our LCS patent portfolio against Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines, United Airlines, and U.S. Airways. In sum, we currently have 22 active lawsuits in connection with 5 of our patented technologies. The condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of CopyTele, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiaries, as of July 31, 2013. All significant intercompany transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. In connection with the change in our operations, during the nine months ended July 31, 2013 we disposed of approximately $2,144,000 of fully depreciated assets, which primarily related to research and development activities. In addition, we have vacated and returned a substantial portion of our facilities to the landlord for possible re-letting and, during the first quarter of fiscal year 2013, recorded an expense of approximately $186,000 related to future rents of unused leased facilities. The results of operations for interim periods presented are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for a full year or any interim period. Reference is made to the audited consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2012, for more extensive disclosures than contained in these condensed consolidated financial statements. Unless otherwise indicated, all references in this Form 10-Q to “dollars” or “$” refer to US dollars. Funding On April 23, 2013, we entered into a common stock purchase agreement (the “Stock Purchase Agreement”) with Aspire Capital Fund LLC (“Aspire Capital”), which provides that Aspire Capital is committed to purchase up to an aggregate of $10 million of shares of our common stock over the two-year term of the agreement. In consideration for entering into the Stock Purchase Agreement, concurrently with the execution of the agreement, we issued to Aspire Capital 3,500,000 shares of our common stock with a fair value of $700,000 as a commitment fee. Upon execution of the Stock Purchase Agreement, Aspire Capital purchased 2,500,000 shares on April 23, 2013 for $500,000. In order to sell any additional shares under the Stock Purchase Agreement, we were required to have a registration statement covering the shares issued to Aspire Capital declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). Such registration statement was declared effective by the SEC in June 2013. Under the Stock Purchase Agreement there are two ways that we can elect to sell shares of common stock to Aspire Capital. On any business day we can select: (1) through a regular purchase of up to 200,000 shares (but not to exceed $200,000) at a known price based on the market price of our common stock prior to the time of each sale, and (2) through a volume-weighted average price, or VWAP, purchase of a number of shares up to 30% of the volume traded on the purchase date at a price equal to the lesser of (i) the closing sale price on the purchase date or (ii) 95% of the VWAP for such purchase date. The Company can only require a VWAP purchase if the closing sale price for our Common Stock on the notice day for the VWAP purchase is higher than $0.50 and the Company has also submitted a regular purchase notice to Aspire Capital in the amount of 200,000 shares on the notice date for the VWAP purchase. During the three months ended July 31, 2013 we sold an additional 600,000 shares of our common stock to Aspire Capital for approximately $132,000. The number of shares covered by and the timing of, each purchase notice are determined by us, at our sole discretion. The Company cannot execute any sales under the Stock Purchase Agreement when the closing for our common stock is less than $0.15. Aspire Capital has no right to require any sales from us, but is obligated to make purchases as directed in accordance with the Stock Purchase Agreement. The Stock Purchase Agreement may be terminated by us at any time, at our discretion, without any cost or penalty. We incurred expenses of approximately $42,000 in connection with the execution of the Stock Purchase Agreement in addition to the 3,500,000 shares of our common stock we issued as a commitment fee. On May 29, 2013, the Company offered the holders of the warrants issued in our February 2011 private placement, exercisable at a purchase price of $0.178 per share, the opportunity to exercise the warrants at a reduced exercise price of $0.16 per share (payable in cash) during the period ended July 15, 2013. In connection therewith, our Chairman, our Chief Financial Officer and director, and one other director of the Company exercised warrants to purchase 2,380,000 shares of our Common Stock and we received gross proceeds of approximately $381,000. Utilizing the Black-Scholes option-pricing model, the Company determined that the aggregate incremental fair value of the repriced warrants was immaterial and no discount charge was recorded. In addition, during the three months ended July 31, 2013, we issued 547,493 shares of our common stock upon the exercise, on a “cashless” basis, of warrants to purchase 1,400,000 shares at a purchase price of $0.178 per share. During the nine months ended July 31, 2013, our cash used in operating activities was approximately $2,642,000. This resulted from payments to suppliers, employees and consultants of approximately $2,645,000, which was partially offset by cash of approximately $2,000 received from collections of accounts receivable related to sales of encryption products and interest received of approximately $1,000. Our cash provided by investing activities during the nine months ended July 31, 2013 was approximately $499,000, which resulted from approximately $500,000 received upon the maturities of short-term investments consisting of certificates of deposit and approximately $1,000 received from the sale of Digital Info Security Co. Inc. common stock partially offset by purchases of equipment of approximately $2,000. Our cash provided by financing activities during the nine months ended July 31, 2013 was approximately $2,785,000, which resulted from cash received from the issuance of convertible debentures and warrants in a private placement of $1,765,000, the sale of common stock of approximately $632,000 less expenses incurred of approximately $42,000, cash received from the exercise of warrants issued in February 2011 of approximately $381,000, proceeds received from ZQX Advisors, LLC (“ZQX”) ( in which CopyTele has a 19.5% ownership interest) from the sale by ZQX of CopyTele common stock held by ZQX, of approximately $24,000, and cash received upon the exercise of employee stock options of approximately $26,000. As a result, our cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments at July 31, 2013 increased by approximately $142,000 to approximately $982,000 from approximately $840,000 at October 31, 2012. Total employee compensation expense for the nine-month periods ended July 31, 2013 and 2012 was approximately $3,161,000 and $1,939,000, respectively, and for the three-month periods ended July 31, 2013 and 2012 was approximately $1,471,000 and $595,000, respectively. During the nine-months ended July 31, 2013 and 2012, a significant portion of employee compensation consisted of the issuance of stock and stock options to employees. We recorded stock-based compensation expense, related to stock awards granted to employees, for the nine-month periods ended July 31, 2013 and 2012 of approximately $-0- and $861,000, respectively, and for the three-month periods ended July 31, 2013 and 2012 of approximately $-0- and $337,000, respectively. We recorded stock-based compensation expense, related to stock options granted to employees and directors, for the nine-month periods ended July 31, 2013 and 2012 of approximately $2,118,000 and $111,000 respectively, and for the three-month periods ended July 31, 2013 and 2012 of approximately $1,091,000 and $-0-, respectively. Based on currently available information, we believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, together with expected cash flows from the Stock Purchase Agreement with Aspire Capital and expected cash flows from patent licensing and enforcement, and other potential sources of cash flows will be sufficient to enable us to continue our patent licensing and enforcement activities for at least 12 months. However, our projections of future cash needs and cash flows may differ from actual results. If current cash on hand and cash that may be generated from the Stock Purchase Agreement and from patent licensing and enforcement activities are insufficient to satisfy our liquidity requirements, we may seek to sell our investment securities or other financial assets or our debt or additional equity securities or obtain loans from various financial institutions where possible. The sale of additional equity securities or convertible debt could result in dilution to our shareholders. We can give no assurance that we will generate sufficient cash flows in the future (through licensing and enforcement of patents, or otherwise) to satisfy our liquidity requirements or sustain future operations, or that other sources of funding, such as sales of equity or debt, would be available, if needed, on favorable terms or at all. We can also give no assurance that we will have sufficient funds to repay our convertible debt at maturity in fiscal year 2015. If we cannot obtain such funding if needed or if we cannot sufficiently reduce operating expenses, we would need to curtail or cease some or all of our operations. As shown in the accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements, as of October 31, 2012 we had an accumulated deficit of approximately $125,083,000 and a net shareholders’ deficiency of approximately $1,194,000. These and the other factors described in our Annual Report on Form10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2012 raised substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. Management’s plans in regard to these matters are set forth above. The accompanying condensed financial statements have been prepared assuming that we will continue as a going concern and do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty. The report from KPMG LLP, the Company’s former independent registered public accountants, dated January 29, 2013, included in our Annual Report on Form10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2012, included an explanatory paragraph related to our ability to continue as a going concern. AU Optronics Corp. In May 2011, we entered into an Exclusive License Agreement (the “EPD License Agreement”) and a License Agreement (the “Nano Display License Agreement”) with AU Optronics Corp. (“AUO”) (together the “AUO License Agreements”). On January 28, 2013, we terminated the AUO License Agreements due to numerous alleged material and continual breaches of the agreements by AUO. On January 28, 2013, we also filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against AUO and E Ink Corporation (“E Ink”) in connection with the AUO License Agreements, alleging breach of contract and other charges, and we are seeking compensatory, punitive, and treble damages (the “AUO/E Ink Lawsuit”). In June of 2013, CopyTele and AUO agreed to arbitrate CopyTele’s charges, which we believe should result in a faster and more efficient adjudication. The Court also ordered E Ink to participate in the arbitration, for purposes of discovery. For more details on the AUO/E Ink Lawsuit, please see Note 9, “Contingences” herein. We can give no assurance as to the outcome of this litigation. Related Party Transactions with Videocon Industries Limited In November 2007, we entered into a Technology License Agreement (as amended in May 2008), (the “Videocon License Agreement”) with Videocon. Under the Videocon License Agreement, we provided Videocon with a non-transferable, worldwide license of our nFED patented technology. We are not presently involved in development efforts with Videocon and it is not anticipated that such efforts will be resumed in the future. We have entered into discussions with Videocon regarding the disposition of the Videocon License Agreement. At the same time we entered into the Videocon License Agreement in November 2007, we also entered into a Share Subscription Agreement (the “Share Subscription Agreement”) with Mars Overseas Limited, an affiliate of Videocon (“Mars Overseas”). Under the Share Subscription Agreement, Mars Overseas purchased 20,000,000 unregistered shares of our common stock (the “CopyTele Shares”) from us for an aggregate purchase price of $16,200,000. Also in November 2007, our wholly-owned subsidiary, CopyTele International Ltd. (“CopyTele International”), entered into a GDR Purchase Agreement with Global EPC Ventures Limited (“Global”), for CopyTele International to purchase from Global 1,495,845 global depository receipts of Videocon (the “Videocon GDRs”) for an aggregate purchase price of $16,200,000. For the purpose of effecting a lock up of the Videocon GDRs and CopyTele Shares (collectively, the “Securities”) for a period of seven years, and therefore restricting both parties from selling or transferring the Securities during such period, CopyTele International and Mars Overseas entered into two Loan and Pledge Agreements in November 2007. The Videocon GDRs are to be held as security for a loan in the principal amount of $5,000,000 from Mars Overseas to CopyTele International, and the CopyTele Shares are similarly held as security for a loan in the principal amount of $5,000,000 from CopyTele International to Mars Overseas. The loans are for a period of seven years, do not bear interest, and prepayment of the loans will not release the lien on the Securities prior to end of the seven year period. The loan agreements provide for customary events of default, which may result in forfeiture of the Securities by the defaulting party, and also provide for the transfer to the respective parties, free and clear of any encumbrances under the agreements, any dividends, distributions, rights or other proceeds or benefits in respect of the Securities. The loan receivable from Mars Overseas is classified as a contra-equity under shareholders’ deficiency in the accompanying condensed consolidated balance sheet because the loan receivable is secured by the CopyTele Shares and the Share Subscription Agreement and Loan and Pledge Agreement were entered into concurrently. We have entered into discussions with Videocon regarding the disposition of the Subscription Agreement, GDR Purchase Agreement, and Loan and Pledge Agreements. The outcome of these discussions and the disposition of the related assets and liabilities may have a material effect on our financial statements. We cannot presently estimate the timing or impact of any such resolution. Revenue Recognition Revenue is recognized when (i) persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, (ii) all obligations have been substantially performed pursuant to the terms of the arrangement, (iii) amounts are fixed or determinable, and (iv) the collectability of amounts is reasonably assured. We have assessed the revenue guidance of Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 605-25 “Multiple-Element Arrangements” (“ASC 605-25”) to determine whether multiple deliverables in our arrangements with AUO represent separate units of accounting. Under the AUO License Agreements, we received initial license fees of $3 million, of aggregate license fees of up to $10 million. The additional $7 million in license fees were payable upon completion of certain conditions for the respective technologies. We have determined that the transfer of the licensed patents and technology and the effort involved in completion of the conditions for the respective technologies represent a single unit of accounting for each technology. Accordingly, using a proportional performance method, during the third quarter of fiscal year 2011 we began recognizing the $3 million initial license fees over the estimated periods that we expected to complete the conditions for the respective technologies. We have not recognized any portion of the $7 million of additional license fees as either deferred revenue or revenue as it is considered contingent revenue. The AUO License Agreements also provided for the basis for royalty payments on future production, if any, by AUO to CopyTele, which we have determined represent separate units of accounting. We have not recognized any royalty income under the AUO License Agreements. Prior to initiation of the AUO/E Ink Lawsuit, at each reporting period we assessed the progress in completing our performance obligations under the AUO License Agreements and recognized license fee revenue over the remaining estimated period that we expected to complete the conditions for the respective technologies. Commencing in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2012, revenue recognition under the AUO License Agreements was suspended pending resolution of the AUO/E Ink Lawsuit. For more details on the AUO/E Ink Lawsuit, please see Note 9, “Contingencies” herein. During the nine-month periods ended July 31, 2013 and 2012 we recognized approximately $-0- and $940,000, respectively, and for the three-month periods ended July 31, 2013 and 2012 $-0- and $247,000, respectively, of license fee revenue from AUO. License fee payments received from AUO which are in excess of the amounts recognized as revenue (approximately $1,187,000 as of July 31, 2013) are recorded as non-refundable deferred revenue on the accompanying consolidated balance sheet

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