PATENT RELATED INCOME

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Goodwill and Intangible Assets Disclosure [Abstract]

3.	PATENT RELATED INCOME

The composition of patent related income in 2016, 2015 and 2014 was as follows:

Year ended December 31, 2016. We had $0.8 million of income from a patent arrangement in 2016. We entered into an arrangement with an unaffiliated third party in 2010 under which we assigned certain patents in return for royalties on proceeds from patent monetization efforts by the third party. Such third party has engaged in various patent monetization activities, including enforcement, litigation and licensing. The party reported and we recorded $0.8 million of income from this arrangement in the year ended December 31, 2016.

We continue to have a contractual relationship with this third party. However, we are unable to predict how much more income we might receive from this arrangement, if any, because we do not know whether any patent monetization efforts by the third party will be successful.

Year ended December 31, 2015. We had a $43,000 gain on the sale of patent assets in 2015. We sold a portion of our patent portfolio pertaining to home networking technology to an unrelated third party for $50,000. The proceeds from the sale were reduced by $7,000 of transaction costs, which consisted primarily of fees from the law firm that assisted us in the sale. We recorded a gain of $43,000 on the sale.

Future patent sales are likely to be minimal as our remaining patents and patent applications pertain primarily to biometrics and imaging compression. Our current intent is to retain these patents for use in the business.

Year ended December 31, 2014. We had a $2.1 million gain on the sale of patent assets in 2014. We sold a portion of our patent portfolio pertaining to DSL diagnostic technology to an unrelated third party for $2.6 million. The proceeds from the sale were reduced by $0.5 million of transaction costs, which consisted primarily of fees from the law firm that assisted us in the sale. We recorded a gain of $2.1 million on the sale.