Patents and Other Intangible Assets

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2018

Goodwill and Intangible Assets Disclosure [Abstract]

Intangible Assets Disclosure [Text Block]

Note 4 – Patents and Other Intangible Assets

Patents and other intangible assets are summarized as follows:

	December 31,
	2018			2017
Patents
Patents pending	$	1,202,000		$	1,167,000
Issued patents		761,000			930,000
		1,963,000			2,097,000
Trademarks
Trademarks pending		55,000			41,000
Registered trademarks		23,000			23,000
		78,000			64,000
Other		8,000			8,000
		2,049,000			2,169,000
Accumulated amortization		(290,000	)		(313,000	)
	$	1,759,000		$	1,856,000

Future amortization expense associated with awarded patents and registered trademarks as of December 31, 2018 is estimated as follows:

2019	$	169,000
2020		142,000
2021		88,000
2022		62,000
2023		32,000
Thereafter		7,000
	$	500,000

In 2018, the Company reassessed its patent portfolio in order to ensure that both the cost-effectiveness and the value created through the intellectual property portfolio were maximized and to focus resources on its most promising patents. Those patents considered to be the most beneficial were retained and those pending patents projected to be unnecessarily costly that could be disposed of without meaningfully degrading the quality of the remaining intellectual property portfolio were abandoned. As a result, during the year ended December 31, 2018, the Company recorded impairment loss of $322,000 of capitalized patents costs. There was no such impairment loss recognized during the year ended December 31, 2017.