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COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2015
COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES |
COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES | 8.COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES In May 2010, the Company and an officer’s suit against BD in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division alleging violations of antitrust acts, false advertising, product disparagement, tortious interference, and unfair competition was reopened. The trial commenced on September 9, 2013 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, and the jury found that BD illegally engaged in anticompetitive conduct with the intent to acquire or maintain monopoly power in the safety syringe market and engaged in false advertising under the Lanham Act. The jury awarded the Company $113,508,014 in damages, which was trebled pursuant to statute. The Court granted injunctive relief to take effect January 15, 2015. In doing so, the Court found that BD’s business practices limited innovation, including false advertisements that suppressed sales of the VanishPoint®. The specific injunctive relief includes: (1) enjoining BD’s use of “World’s Sharpest Needle” or any similar assertion of superior sharpness; (2) requiring notification to all customers who purchased BD syringe products from July 2, 2004 to date that BD wrongfully claimed that its syringe needles were sharper and that its statement that it had “data on file” was false and misleading; (3) requiring notification to employees, customers, distributors, GPOs, and government agencies that the deadspace of the VanishPoint® has been within ISO standards since 2004 and that BD overstated the deadspace of the VanishPoint® to represent that it was higher than some of BD’s syringes when it was actually less, and that BD’s statement that it had “data on file” was false and misleading, and, in addition, posting this notice on its website for a period of three years; (4) enjoining BD from advertising that its syringe products save medication as compared to VanishPoint® products for a period of three years; (5) requiring notification to all employees, customers, distributors, GPOs, and government agencies that BD’s website, cost calculator, printed materials, and oral representations alleging BD’s syringes save medication as compared to the VanishPoint® were based on false and inaccurate measurement of the VanishPoint®, and, in addition, posting this notice on its website for a period of three years; and (6) requiring the implementation of a comprehensive training program for BD employees and distributors that specifically instructs them not to use old marketing materials and not to make false representations regarding VanishPoint® syringes. Final judgment was entered on January 15, 2015, awarding the Company $340,524,042 in damages and $11,722,823 in attorneys’ fees, as well as granting injunctive relief consistent with the orders as indicated above. The parties stipulated that the amount of litigation costs recoverable by the Company is $295,000. On January 14, 2015, the District Court stayed the portion of the injunctive relief that requires BD to notify end-user customers but also ordered BD to comply with internal correction activities as well as mandatory disclosures as set out above to its employees, customers, distributors and Group Purchasing Organizations. BD filed an appeal of that ruling with the 5 th Circuit Court of Appeals and that appeal was denied on February 3, 2015. On February 12, 2015, BD filed a motion to amend the judgment directed most specifically to the issue of award of prejudgment interest. On April 23, 2015, the Court entered an Amended Final Judgment that removed prejudgment interest but kept all other monetary and injunctive relief the same as was granted in the original Final Judgment. BD filed its brief in the appeal on July 20, 2015. The Company filed its responsive brief on September 18, 2015 and BD filed its brief in reply on October 19, 2015 to complete the briefing. Oral argument occurred on Monday, February 29, 2016. In many cases the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals issues its decision several months after oral argument, but there is no set time limit. In September 2007, BD and MDC Investment Holdings, Inc. (“MDC”) sued the Company in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Texarkana Division, initially alleging that the Company is infringing two U.S. patents of MDC (6,179,812 and 7,090,656) that are licensed to BD. BD and MDC seek injunctive relief and unspecified damages. The Company counterclaimed for declarations of non-infringement, invalidity, and unenforceability of the asserted patents. The plaintiffs subsequently dropped allegations with regard to patent no. 7,090,656 and the Company subsequently dropped its counterclaims for unenforceability of the asserted patents. On June 30, 2015, the Court ordered that further proceedings in this matter be stayed and that this case remain administratively closed until resolution of all appeals in the case detailed in the first paragraph of this Note 8. Operating Leases In 2010, the Company entered into a non-cancellable operating lease for additional office space. Rent expense under this lease for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014, and 2013 was $64,683; $62,813; and $61,607, respectively. The Company renewed the lease in 2015. Future annual minimum rental payments as of December 31, 2015 are presented below:
2016 |  | $ | 74,772 |
2017 |  | 77,015 |
2018 |  | 79,331 |
2019 |  | 81,694 |
2020 |  | 84,155 |
Total |  | $ | 396,967 |

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