SemiLEDs Corp 10-Q

Item 1. Legal Proceedings Due to the complex technology required to compete successfully in the LED industry, participants in our industry are often engaged in significant intellectual property licensing arrangements, negotiations, disputes and litigation. We are directly or indirectly involved from time to time and may be named in various other claims or legal proceedings arising in the ordinary course of our business or otherwise. On June 21, 2017, Well Thrive Ltd. (“Well Thrive”) filed a complaint against SemiLEDs Corporation in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. The complaint alleged that Well Thrive was entitled to return of $500 thousand paid toward a note purchase pursuant to a purchase agreement (the “Purchase Agreement”) effective July 6, 2016 with Dr. Peter Chiou, which was assigned to Well Thrive on August 4, 2016. Pursuant to the terms of the Purchase Agreement, we retained the $500 thousand payment as liquidated damages. Well Thrive alleged that the liquidated damages provision was unenforceable as an illegal penalty and did not reflect the amount of purported damages. On March 13, 2018, we filed a motion to enforce a settlement agreement between the parties to dismiss the lawsuit with prejudice. On March 27, 2018, Well Thrive filed an answering brief in opposition to our motion on the basis that Well Thrive never consented to dismiss the case. On January 2, 2019, the judge denied without prejudice the motion filed by us, because there remains some question as to whether Well Thrive’s former lawyers and Dr. Chiou had authority from Well Thrive to settle this case. The judge’s order allowed us to conduct depositions of Well Thrive’s former lawyer, Dr. Chiou, and Mr. Chang Sheng-Chun, Well Thrive’s director, and to request documents relating to the issues surrounding the settlement. Based on this order, we arranged the depositions to obtain more evidence in support of a motion to enforce the settlement agreement. The Court held a trial on March 2, 2020. After the trial, the judge ordered both sides to prepare post-trial briefs and proposed findings of fact for the Court to be submitted before end of April 2020. Both sides submitted post-trial briefs and proposed findings of fact on April 30, 2020. On December 21, 2020, the judge, following a hearing, issued her judgment, which orders SemiLEDs to return the $500,000 to Well Thrive, and required both parties, on or before January 6, 2021, to submit information on the appropriate amount of interest to be added. On January 6, 2021, the Company filed a brief arguing that there should not be an award of prejudgment interest and Well Thrive is arguing for the amount of $135,774 in pre-judgment interest. Except as described above, there was no material pending legal proceedings or claims as of November 30, 2020. Item 1A. Risk Factors There are no material changes related to risk factors from the risk factors described in Item 1A “Risk Factors” in Part I of our 2020 Annual Report.