Although ParkerVision Inc. was awarded $173 million by a federal court jury last year in its patent infringement lawsuit against Qualcomm Inc., it hasn't seen any of that money yet and it could be well into 2015 before it does.
Jacksonville-based ParkerVision Inc. last week reported no revenue for the third straight year in 2013, as it continues to develop its wireless radio technology. The company ended 2013 with a net loss of $27.9 million, or 31 cents a share.
ParkerVision didn't come up completely empty in 2013, as it had a win in its lawsuit alleging that Qualcomm has been illegally using its technology in wireless products. ParkerVision also is seeking additional payments from Qualcomm for future royalties.
Chairman and CEO Jeff Parker said during the company's third-quarter conference call that the future royalties could be at least $60 million a year, in addition to the $173 million awarded for past infringement. During last week's conference call with investors, Parker said the royalties could be worth between $60 million and $200 million annually.
The patents run through 2022, he said.
However, ParkerVision won't receive any money until the appeal process is complete and that is likely to take some time, he said.
A hearing in the case is scheduled for May 1 and Parker said he does not know what issues will be taken up by the judge, or when a decision may come after the hearing.
"Both ParkerVision and Qualcomm have a number of pending motions that are to be decided by the judge," Parker said.
"We are hopeful that it (a decision) will be forthcoming fairly soon after the hearing," he said.
Even if ParkerVision gets favorable rulings in May, that may not be the end of it. Parker said the parties will have 30 days to appeal the judge's decisions, and the appeals will go to a three-judge panel at an appellate court in Washington, D.C.
Based on the current calendar, Parker thinks the case would take nine to 12 months to reach the appellate court.
"Although we would prefer to resolve this matter more expeditiously, we are certainly fully prepared to pursue this matter through the appellate court system if necessary to achieve a fair resolution for ParkerVision," he said.
Meanwhile, ParkerVision is continuing to seek opportunities with other manufacturers to license its technology.
"We believe there is a tremendously large market available for licensing ParkerVision's RF (radio frequency) technology," Parker said.
In the conference call, Parker calculated that based on the global telecommunications market, ParkerVision's technology could be worth $340 million to $850 million annually.
However, he would not estimate what share of that market ParkerVision could grab, and he also did not give a timetable on when the company may be able to strike a deal with a manufacturer to use it.
ParkerVision also announced it has raised additional capital by selling 2.67 million shares of common stock at $4.50 each to two investors in a private placement. The company expects to net $11.9 million in proceeds after expenses from the sale.
ParkerVision did not announce the names of the investors in its news release but in its annual report filed last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it disclosed the investors are MSDC Management, L.P. and Falcon Fund, Ltd.
MV Portfolio also files patent infringement suit
Two weeks ago, we told you about Jacksonville's newest public company, MV Portfolio LLC, which owns a number of patents related to video drive-by and online mapping technology.
MV Portfolio is going public by merging with an existing public company called California Gold Corp. In SEC filings related to the merger, the company said its technology enables "a street level view of a neighborhood surrounding a geographic location," but didn't say how that differs from other Internet mapping technologies.
Now maybe we know the answer. The company announced last week that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Google Inc.
The lawsuit alleges that Google Street View and Google Earth applications infringed on its patents.
"We believe our patented technologies are some of the driving forces behind the demand for street-level imagery and online mapping," MV Portfolio CEO William Meadow said in a news release.
"Our inventions have made it faster, easier and less expensive to obtain street-level images with integrated location data, which has been a boon to many industries, including real estate, marketing, insurance, property development, tourism and recreation," he said.
A Google spokesman said by email that the company had no comment on the lawsuit.
California Gold has been engaged in mineral exploration, but that business will no longer be part of MV Portfolio going forward.
The company plans to change its name to MV Portfolios Inc. at the end of this month and come up with a new ticker symbol. Its stock currently trades under the symbol "CLGL."
MV Portfolio LLC, which is now operating as a subsidiary of the public holding company, changed its name to Visual Real Estate Inc., and Visual Real Estate filed the lawsuit against Google.
According to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Jacksonville, Meadow started the business in 2002 as part of a plan to buy and lease properties along State Road A1A between Jacksonville and St. Augustine. The company started creating street level images in 2005, it said.
The lawsuit does not say the amount of damages Visual Real Estate is seeking.
According to updated SEC filings, MV Portfolio recorded operating expenses of $241,102 in the six months ended Dec. 31 and no revenue.
Jacksonville Bancorp records fourth straight loss
Jacksonville Bancorp Inc. reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $1.3 million, or 23 cents a share.
That left the parent company of The Jacksonville Bank with an adjusted net loss for all of 2013 of $960,000, or 20 cents a share. That was the company's fourth straight annual net loss.
The company did reduce its level of non-performing assets (overdue loans and real estate acquired through foreclosure) from $29.7 million, or 5.26 percent of assets at the end of 2012 to $20.1 million, or 3.95 percent of assets, as of Dec. 31, 2013.
Jacksonville Bancorp in December hired Kendall Spencer as its new president and chief executive officer.
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