Item 1. Business
Item 1.
Business
Overview
We believe that the future of audio technology
is in wireless devices and that Summit is well positioned to deliver best-in-class immersive wireless sound technology for intelligent
devices and next generation home entertainment systems. We currently sell modules which wirelessly transmit and receive audio directly
to speakers. Additionally, we plan to license our proprietary software technology, currently embedded in our wireless modules,
to other companies who can then embed our technology into other Wi-Fi enabled smart devices. The segment of the wireless audio
market that Summit focuses on is comprised of scalable multichannel solutions with levels of latency that are low enough to synchronize
with video. The term multichannel refers to the use of multiple audio tracks to reconstruct a sound field using multiple speakers.
As part of the effort to grow the wireless
multichannel home audio segment, Summit was a founding member of the WiSA Association, an association dedicated to providing industry
leadership and consumer choice through interoperability testing between brands. There are currently over 70 brands participating
in the WiSA Association. Products certified and marked with a WiSA Association logo have been tested to interoperate. This preserves
consumer choice by enabling consumers to choose different wireless transmitting products across different brands where audio is
decoded with speakers that have the WiSA Association logo displayed. Our marketing strategy focuses on, what we believe, are two
emerging wireless audio market needs: better audio quality and lower signal latency. Summit currently sells custom semiconductor
chips and wireless modules to a growing list of consumer electronics customers, including major brands in the consumer electronic
industry. We believe that a growing adoption of our technology by leaders in this industry will revolutionize the way people experience
media content through their mobile devices, televisions (“TVs”), game consoles and personal computers (“PCs”).
Our Business Focus
Our primary business focus is to enable
mainstream consumers and audio enthusiasts to experience high quality wireless audio. We intend to continue selling our proprietary
wireless modules to consumer electronics companies while also expanding our focus to implement a lower cost solution by porting
our software onto commercially available internet of things (“IoT”) modules with integrated Wi-Fi technology.
Industry Background
The primary growth segments for in home
entertainment have been “Bluetooth” stereo accessories which include single speakers, headsets, and more recently,
“multi-room” stereo speakers that use your home’s Wi-Fi network to stream audio throughout the house. The information
contained in or accessible through the foregoing website is not part of this Report and is for informational purposes only.
Our Technology
Our technology addresses some of the main
issues that we perceive are hindering the growth of the home theater: complexity of installation and cost. We believe that consumers
want to experience theater quality surround sound from the comfort of their homes. However, wired home theater systems often require
expensive audio-visual (“AV”) receivers to decode the audio stream, leaving the consumer with the burden of concealing
the wires. Hiring a professional to hide the wires into the walls or floor is invasive, complicated, costly and time consuming.
Further, people who rent as opposed to own their home may not be able to install these systems as the installation construction
needed may not be permitted under a lease agreement. Our first-generation wireless technology addresses these problems by transmitting
wireless audio to each speaker at Blu-ray quality (uncompressed 24-bit audio up to 96 kHz sample rates) and emphasizing ease of
setup. To our knowledge, Summit’s custom chips and modules technology is one of the only technologies available today that
can stream up to eight (8) separate wireless audio channels with low latency, removing lip-sync issues between the audio and
video sources. In addition, every speaker within a system that utilizes our technology can be synchronized to less than one microsecond,
thus eliminating phase distortion between speakers. Summit’s first-generation technology shows that wireless home theater
systems are viable home audio solutions for the average consumer and audio enthusiast alike.
Summit is currently developing certain
proprietary software for which patent applications have been submitted that we believe will allow us to enable smart devices that
have Wi-Fi and video media to deliver surround sound audio. A prototype version of our software technology has been demonstrated
to select customers (pursuant to confidentiality agreements) at the Consumer Electronics Show 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Our goal
is to commercialize a software based-solution, which other brands can integrate into their devices, that will (i) reduce integration
costs for mass market use, (ii) utilize Wi-Fi for wireless connectivity, making it easy to integrate into today’s high
volume, low cost systems on a chip (“SOC”) and modules, (iii) provide a low power consumption option to allow
for use in battery powered devices, and (iv) provide compatibility with popular consumer electronic operating systems.
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WiSA Association
Our wholly-owned subsidiary, WiSA, LLC,
operates the WiSA Association, which is an association comprised of brands, manufacturers, and influencers within the consumer
electronics industry, all of which agree that a standardized method of interoperability between wireless audio components should
exist, and most of which believe that products should be brought to market with this goal in mind. The WiSA Association creates,
maintains and manages specifications for wireless interoperability that are available to all association members. For products
with a WiSA Association certification, the WiSA Association also creates, maintains and manages testing criteria and specifications
for all products to be listed, marketed and sold. WiSA-certification is an industrywide “stamp of approval” certifying
that a product is interoperable with other products in the WiSA ecosystem and has passed several high-performance tests ensuring
interoperability and wireless performance standards are met. As the sole owner of WiSA, LLC, we certify all WiSA Association products.
LG Electronics introduced two premium model lines, OLED and Nanocell TVs, as WiSA Ready TM TVs in 2019 and has continued
the feature in their 2020 TVs. The Company expects three to four additional TV brands to be marketing WiSA projects in 2021.
In 2018, the Company introduced the WiSA
Ready TM certification. The WiSA Ready TM certification identifies entertainment sources – such
as TVs, gaming systems or computers – that are equipped to deliver up to eight (8) channels of HD audio to WiSA-certified
speakers when connected with a WiSA Universal Serial Bus (“USB”) transmitter. This program simplifies consumer set-up
and reduces costs by replacing AV receivers or wireless hubs with a low-cost USB accessory. We believe that using WiSA Ready TM
products allows consumers to more simply and conveniently enjoy wireless multi-channel sound, eliminating the clutter, wires and
complicated installs generally required to create immersive audio experiences.
Currently, WiSA-certified products are
required to use Summit modules in order to meet the standards set by the WiSA Association. As a result, WiSA Association members
purchase modules from us in order to build their products to meet such standards.
Among WiSA-certified products, consumers
will be able to outfit their home entertainment system with WiSA-certified speakers and components from any participating vendor
with the assurance that the devices will interoperate and provide high quality wireless HD surround sound.
The WiSA Association manages logo usage
and trademark guidelines, investigates alternative markets, connects brands to manufacturing resources, and, we believe, provides
industry leadership in solving the challenges facing the home theater and commercial markets in the integration of wireless audio
technology.
WiSA Association has dramatically
increased consumer awareness, as measured by web traffic through their website. There were 365,000 web visits in 2020,
representing an increase of 339,000 from 26,000 visits in 2019. The WiSA Association utilizes Google analytics to
identify and measure unique user web traffic.
Modules
Summit has designed wireless modules that
provide high performance wireless audio for our customers to integrate into their products, such as a speaker, TV, media hubs and
USB or HDMI dongles. These modules include our custom semiconductors with our intellectual property (“IP”) built in
as well as a Wi-Fi radio for communications. By designing and selling these modules, we can reduce our customers’ design
expense, accelerate their time-to-market cycle, and reduce the cost of each module. Summit offers both a “TX” module
to transmit the audio from a host device like a media hub, TV or dongle to WiSA-enabled speakers and an “RX” model
for speakers that receive the wireless audio signal and processes it for audio play out.
Modules for Consumer Products
Summit’s TX modules are targeted
for integration into TVs, AV receivers, media hubs and USB or HDMI dongles. Summit’s transmitter, with its integrated antenna,
is designed to support rooms as large as 10-meters by 10-meters with uncompressed, 24-bit audio up to 96 kHz sample rate. The module
supports a simple interface, with Inter-IC Sound (“I2S”) or USB audio and control. In addition, Summit’s technology
has been approved by Digital Content Protection, LLC, the licensing agency for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection, as an
audio-only output technology for retransmission of audio content.
Summit’s receiver interfaces to a
digital amplifier and is designed to be integrated directly into a home theater speaker. The four (4) printed circuit board
(PCB) antennas simplify system integration while providing robust reception of 24-bit audio up to 96 kHz sample rates virtually
anywhere within a 10-meter by 10-meter space. It supports one or two separate audio outputs via I2S. An optional interface on the
receiver module can be enabled to configure the speaker type and provide volume/mute control at the speaker. Alternatively, the
speaker type can be assigned at the factory for preconfigured Home Theater in a Box applications.
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The Summit Opportunity
We believe that the following attributes:
cost, mobility, video support, ease of installation and quality create a market opportunity for Summit’s technologies to
be adopted by the consumer electronics industry as described further below.
Cost
We believe that the simplicity and cost
structure of our current WiSA USB transmitter and upcoming embedded software solution will make our prices competitive for
a wider range of applications, allowing consumer electronics companies to integrate our technology, while also delivering high
quality audio.
Mobility
Mobile devices are popular for streaming
video, gaming and using virtual reality applications. We believe that this is driving a need for an embedded high-fidelity wireless
solution in the mobile device that can transmit audio to headsets or speakers within a room. Summit’s technology enables
high quality wireless audio transmission from mobile devices.
Video Support
Wireless audio capable of supporting video
has become a priority for consumers across a variety of high-volume multimedia platforms, including TV’s, smartphones, game
consoles and set-top boxes. Video applications require audio and video to be perfectly synchronized in order to avoid lip-sync
and speaker audio phase distortion issues. Summit’s technology prioritizes low latency and synchronization to less than one
microsecond, thus practically eliminating phase distortion between speakers.
Ease of Installation
We believe that the home theater market
has moved toward simplicity in recent years. The costly and inconvenient home theaters of the past have left consumers with a desire
for audio systems that provide a simplified installation process. We believe that new audio systems, including the predominant
sound bar system, are unable to provide high levels of performance, especially in the surround-sound market. Summit’s technology
greatly simplifies the installation process of true surround-sound systems. This allows consumers to install a home theater system
with the same amount of effort as a sound bar, but enjoy a far superior experience. We believe that an overwhelming majority of
the content entering consumers’ homes through digital TV and streaming services is provided in a multi-channel format, which
is why Summit’s goal is to facilitate enjoyment of true surround sound for both the everyday consumer and audio enthusiast.
In addition to easy installation, Summit
modules provide consumers with a multitude of options, allowing customization of a home theater specific to each consumer, without
being forced to stick with one brand of speaker. For example, our hope is that a consumer might start with a Summit enabled sound
bar for their TV and then add a Summit enabled subwoofer. That same system can be easily upgraded to a variety of surround sound
systems by simply adding more speakers. Our technology will allow consumers to upgrade an audio system or just one component of
the system without the need to replace the entire system. Consumers can keep the original transmitter, sound bar, and subwoofer
and integrate them seamlessly into a new system. Being able to outfit a home entertainment system with Summit-enabled speakers
and components gives consumers the ability to express their individual preference and needs and provides the assurance that the
devices will interoperate, delivering what we believe is the highest standard in HD wireless surround sound.
Dissatisfaction with Bluetooth Performance and Quality
We believe that consumers want better performance
and quality from their Bluetooth audio devices. For example, they may want headsets that stay connected over longer distances or
products that offer better audio fidelity. By offering a solution that addresses these needs at a comparable price point to Bluetooth,
we believe that we can build consumer demand for our technology.
Profitability of Audio Component Accessories
High-definition televisions (“HDTVs”) are getting thinner and it is becoming increasingly difficult to incorporate the latest
electronic advances into such thin displays. Over two hundred million smart TVs are currently sold annually. We expect that eventually
most of the electronics will be external to the display. We believe that the first physical feature to be removed from HDTVs will be the
audio component, since there is very little room for quality speakers in today’s thin displays. We believe that HDTV manufacturers
know that they need to provide an audio alternative. Additionally, since cost is a significant consideration, we believe that some manufacturers
may offer external sound bars which will satisfy some consumers, but perhaps not the consumers who desire a high-quality audio alternative.
Over nine million sound bars are forecasted to be sold in the United States in 2021 by CTA (Consumer Technology Association) which would
equate to 30 to 40 million worldwide. We believe that these developments are creating an inflection point in the market, and manufacturers
are looking to Summit’s technology to create a standard for wireless audio interoperability that will support a long-term product
strategy for the successful development of high quality, wireless audio products. By designing speaker systems that incorporate Summit’s
technology, consumer electronics companies will be able to sell easy-to-install surround sound audio solutions alongside TVs.
Enjoyment of improved audio on existing content
We believe that the growth in the number
of video devices streaming multi-channel audio content, coupled with new 3D immersive sound experiences from Dolby’s ATMOS
and DTS’ DTSx formats, will help propel the demand for wireless speakers well into the future.
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Enjoyment of wireless audio without interference from other
wireless signals
Having other devices nearby that also use
the 5 GHz band should not affect the performance of a Summit-enabled audio system, as Summit’s technology can seamlessly
switch to another frequency within the 5 GHz band. The 5 GHz U-NII spectrum utilized by Summit technology has up to 24 channels
available that are constantly monitored for interference using the Dynamic Frequency Selection sub-band between 5.2 and 5.8 GHz.
When interference is detected, the next channel, having been monitored for over one minute and confirmed for accessibility, is
ready to be accessed and Summit-enabled devices switch seamlessly to that channel, without the user ever noticing or the audio
experience being affected.
What Distinguishes Summit from its Competitors
Both the proprietary technology and the
adoption of the technology by leaders in consumer electronics are differentiating factors for Summit. Our management believes that
Summit is one of the only companies with the technical capabilities of transmitting high resolution, low latency, and speaker synchronization
of wireless audio capable of supporting up to 8 channels. Premium consumer brands, like Bang & Olufsen, Harman International,
a division of Samsung and LG Electronics have begun to adopt our technology as a valued feature in performance products.
Category Defining Wireless Audio
Our first generation wireless audio technology
delivers industry leading 8 channels of uncompressed audio directly to the speakers in 24-bit and up to 96 kHz sample rates. This
means that a consumer can experience audio exactly as it was mastered in the studio. Summit’s technology supports surround
sound systems up to 7.1 or 5.1.2 for Dolby Atmos® configurations.
Alternative technologies such as, Bluetooth
and Wi-Fi standards were not designed to transmit fixed low latency audio that is synchronized to video. However, Bluetooth and
Wi-Fi standards can work well for audio-only wireless transmission, when video is not a part of the listening experience. In audio-only
applications, latency is less critical and audio data can be buffered in memory to ensure proper speaker synchronization even when
data retransmissions are needed in today’s congested wireless environments. In video applications, retransmissions add to
latency. Standard Bluetooth and Wi-Fi standards have long variable latency that can exceed acceptable audio to video synchronization
and make quality multichannel audio experience unachievable. A few custom silicon-based solutions exist today that improve on Bluetooth
and Wi-Fi standards based performance, but compared to Summit, such products have longer latencies, lower performing speaker synchronization,
and are limited to 2-4 audio channels and often only support 16-bit CD quality audio.
Summit’s technology roadmap includes
proprietary software that will enable standard Wi-Fi protocol to support multi-channel audio for video applications, while permitting
Summit to leverage Wi-Fi’s lower chip and module cost structure. Summits first generation technology was designed for the
mid to high end home theater market and offers a unique feature set that is expected to be included in new product designs for
years. Summit’s new Wi-Fi strategy enables the Company to compete in the entry level home theater market at Bluetooth price
points, while delivering superior multi-channel performance for higher volume applications. The Company’s recently announced
Discovery module is the first product that integrates Summit’s new software which enables a transceiver module to keep up
to four independent wireless audio channels synchronized in a room size up to 10 meters square. The Discovery modules is ideally
suited for entry level home entertainment systems, including sound bars, TVs, subwoofers and Dolby Atmos® applications.
Summit Customers
Summit currently sells wireless modules
containing custom semiconductor chips to a growing list of consumer electronics customers, including major brands such as Bang &
Olufsen, Enclave Audio, Klipsch, LG, Harman International, a division of Samsung, Savant, Skyworth and System Audio. We
believe that the use of our products by well-known consumer electronics brands will provide an opportunity to create wireless audio
products that are simple to install and perform at high levels. Brands such as Bang & Olufsen and Klipsch have chosen
Summit technology to drive their wireless home audio/theater product assortments. We believe that their leadership has brought
credibility to the technology and paved the way at retail for other brands to follow.
Our Strategy
Our goal is to establish and maintain a
leadership position as the ubiquitous standard for hi-fidelity wireless, multi-channel audio. To obtain and enhance our position
as the leading standard in the audio space, we intend to:
●
improve recognition of our Summit brand and the WiSA Association standard brand;
●
provide excellent products and services to our customers and members;
●
make sure our technology is accessible to many consumers by having our technology in consumer electronics devices that sell at a variety of price points;
●
expand market awareness of wireless multi-channel hi-fidelity audio experience availability;
●
reduce hardware costs;
●
enhance and protect our IP portfolio;
●
invest in highly qualified personnel; and
●
build innovative products alongside the world’s leading consumer electronics companies.
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We currently sell our modules in relatively
small quantities. As new customers introduce Summit-enabled products and current customers introduce second and third generation
Summit-enabled products, we expect that orders for our modules will increase proportionally. With larger orders, we believe that
we can take advantage of economies of scale and improve our gross margins on our modules.
Interoperability
Interoperability is a key aspect of wireless
technology. We believe that this is especially true with audio technology, where unique designs, price points, audio quality and
capabilities as well as consumer brand loyalties are significant factors for the end consumer. Creating home theater and audio
components that all work with an interoperable standard creates a high level of confidence in retailers and consumers in the functionality
of the entire entertainment system. Interoperability also increases the opportunity for specialized brands to create new and innovative
products knowing they can focus on their specific part of the market and rely on others to create the necessary cohort components.
Proprietary Software
A significant amount of our time and resources
are being allocated towards launching a software licensing part of our business. Customers will receive a license for our TX software,
so that any of their devices with a suitable Wi-Fi radio can transmit audio compliant with our standard without having to purchase
and integrate our TX module. We believe that this software will be well positioned for use by major consumer electronics companies
in many devices including TVs, handsets, gaming consoles, and computers. Patent applications have been submitted for key technology
innovations in this software.
Speaker companies under this new model
would purchase Wi-Fi modules with our RX software pre-installed from an original equipment manufacturer (“OEM”), rather
than buying modules directly from us. The OEM would pay a royalty to us based on how many modules with our software that it sold.
Research and Development
As of December 31, 2020, our research
and development department consisted of 25 dedicated employees, 1 of which was working part-time. Summit’s engineering team
has a wide range of expertise, capable of developing all levels of product design, from Application Specific Integrated Circuits
(“ASIC”) to modules to finished products. Summit research and development has and will continue developing trade secrets
for Digital Signal Processing (“DSP”), RF design and testing of Summit technologies.
Summit has developed multiple ASICs and
certified modules for integration into multiple designs by ODMs which are currently shipping to consumers. The hardware solution
uses a high-performance proprietary network for transmission of multi-channel audio.
Summit is currently developing a Wi-Fi
compliant Software (“SW”) solution that could enable multi-channel audio capabilities on most Google Cast modules and
Linux/Android based multimedia systems. The software solution uses a Wi-Fi compliant network for transmission of multi-channel
audio. Summit has demonstrated the core SW only technology to key tier one companies and is currently working on productizing the
solution for evaluation and implementation.
Manufacturing, Logistics and Fulfillment
Our modules are designed and developed
in Oregon, and our manufacturing is outsourced to contract manufacturers located in China. Our manufacturing facilities have been
ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified. We purchase components and fabricated parts from multiple suppliers; however, we rely on sole
source suppliers for certain components used to manufacture our modules. Several key strategic parts are purchased from suppliers
by us and then consigned to our manufacturers, while the vast majority of parts are procured directly by our contract manufacturers.
Our operations team manages the pricing and supply of the key components of our modules and seeks to achieve competitive pricing
on the largest value-add components, while leveraging our contract manufacturers’ volume purchases for best pricing on common
parts. We have strong relationships with our manufacturers, helping us meet our supply and support requirements. Our manufacturing
partners procure components and assemble our devices in accordance with our purchase orders. Demand forecasts and manufacturing
purchase orders are based upon customer orders, historical trends, and analysis from our sales and product management functions.
We believe that our manufacturing capabilities are essential to maintaining and improving product quality and performance, and
that using outsourced manufacturing enables greater scale and flexibility than establishing our own manufacturing facilities.
While some modules are delivered from our
production facility in Oregon, we have a third-party warehouse and fulfillment center in Hong Kong that delivers the majority our
modules.
Sales Channels and Customers
Summit sells modules and integrated circuits
(“ICs”) directly to OEM brands worldwide which in turn, sell their system level products to end customers through a
vast channel of retailers and dealer networks. Internationally known brands such as Bang & Olufsen, Harman International,
a division of Samsung, LG, System Audio, Klipsch, Axiim, Enclave and many others are among our current customers,
with products aimed at the wireless home theater market. Most of these brands sell thru big box retail and online e-tail.
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Marketing and Advertising
Effective and consistent marketing and
advertising is critical as we grow our wireless audio solutions. We have worked with multiple PR agencies on establishing effective
messaging to face all segments within our category including press, brands, reviewers, retailers and consumers. Our focuses are
ease of set-up, high quality performance, expandability and the benefits of a true multi-channel surround sound audio solutions.
Competition
The semiconductor industry is intensely
competitive and has been characterized by price erosion and rapid technological change. We compete with major domestic and international
semiconductor companies, many of which have greater market recognition and greater financial, technical, marketing, distribution
and other resources than we have with which to pursue engineering, manufacturing, marketing and distribution of their products.
Microchip
Technology, Inc .
Microchip Technology, Inc. (“Microchip”)
develops, manufactures and sells specialized semiconductor products used by their customers for a wide variety of embedded control
applications. One of their offerings, KleerNet, is in direct competition with our technology. Microchip markets their KleerNet
technology as resistant to interference, low latency, long-range, and able to stream uncompressed audio. Summit’s technology
differentiates itself from KleerNet because we do not rely on a retransmission protocol. A retransmission protocol resends audio
packets that have been either damaged or lost. We believe retransmission of audio data is an inferior solution since it increases
latency in congested networks and makes it difficult to synchronize audio with video. Summit transmits audio packets with fixed
latency in a manner well-suited for multi-channel audio networks and video applications.
Avnera Corporation
Avnera Corporation (“Avnera”)
is a fabless semiconductor company making highly-integrated application targeted ICs for consumer audio and voice applications.
Avnera’s ICs integrate RF, power management, audio data converters, host interfaces, & programmable DSPs onto low-cost
CMOS, enabling very high performance at low total system cost. Avnera’s IC products target applications in the PC accessory
audio, iPod accessory audio, home theater, and consumer & enterprise voice markets. Avnera’s list of customers includes
Logitech, Creative, Rocketfish, Panasonic, iHome, Vizio, Sanyo, Onkyo, Acoustic Research, Audioengine and Polycom.
Bluetooth SIG, Inc.
Bluetooth SIG, Inc. is a globally
recognized technology that has applications to wireless audio. We believe Bluetooth SIG technology currently cannot match the technical
capabilities of our modules. However, Bluetooth SIG, is still a very inexpensive and widely used technology for wireless audio.
We believe that our technological advantages over Bluetooth SIG include our ability to provide to consumers surround sound, a more
reliable connection, higher fidelity, fixed low latency, tight speaker to speaker synchronization, and uncompressed audio.
In addition to these companies that compete
with our custom chip and module business, we believe that Blackfire Research Corporation would be a competitor for our upcoming
software IP business segment.
Intellectual Property
We have key IP assets, including patents
and trade secrets developed based on our technical expertise. As of December 31, 2020, we had 10 issued patents and 5 pending
patent applications in the United States and 2 applications outside the United States. The patents cover several areas of a multi-channel
system. Our currently issued patents expire at various times from December 31, 2029 through February 21, 2034.
IP is an important aspect of our business,
and our practice is to seek protection for our IP as appropriate. A multi-channel audio for surround sound system has technical
requirements not required by simple stereo only systems. Multi-channel systems require each audio channel to be precisely played
in time to create a sound field that correlates to video being viewed by a consumer. Summit has developed hardware and software
core technologies that manage system network latency and speaker phase. Summit’s patents are based on protecting our low
latency network algorithms and multi receiver synchronization.
We pursue a general practice of filing
patent applications for our technologies in the U.S. and foreign countries where our customers manufacture, distribute, or sell
licensed products. We actively pursue new applications to expand our patent portfolio to address new technological innovations.
We have multiple patents covering aspects and improvements for many of our technologies.
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Our trademarks cover our various products, technologies, improvements,
and features, as well as the services that we provide. These trademarks are an integral part of our technology licensing program,
and licensees typically elect to place our trademarks on their products to inform consumers that their products incorporate our
technology and meet our quality specifications.
We protect our IP rights both domestically
and internationally. From time to time, we may experience problems with OEMs of consumer entertainment products in emerging economies.
In the event it becomes necessary, we will take all necessary steps to enforce our IP rights.
Moreover, we have relatively few issued
patents outside the U.S. Growing our licensing revenue in developing countries may depend in part on our ability to obtain and
maintain patent rights in these countries, which is uncertain. Further, because of the limitations of the legal systems in many
countries, the effectiveness of patents obtained or that may in the future be obtained, if any, is uncertain.
Employees
As of December 31, 2020, we had a
total 40 employees working in the United States and internationally. In the United States, we had 38 employees, 1 of which was
working part-time, including 25 employees that work in our research and development department, 7 employees in our sales and marketing
department, 1 employee that works in our manufacturing/logistics/fulfillment department and 5 employees that work in our general
and administrative department. Additionally, we have one logistics employee and one sales employee in Taiwan. None of our employees
are currently covered by a collective bargaining agreement, and we have experienced no work stoppages. We consider our relationship
with our employees to be good.
Item 1A.
Risk Factors.
As a smaller reporting company, the Company
is not required to include the disclosure required under this Item 1A.
Item 1B.
Unresolved Staff Comments.
Not Applicable.
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