There are also a number of active matrix LCDAMLCD, LCOS, OLED, MicroLED and alternative display technologies in development and production. These technologies include plasma, organic light emitting diode, micro LED and virtual retinal displays, some of which target the high performance small form factor display markets in which our military display products are sold. There are many large and small companies that manufacture or have in development products based on these technologies. We outsource the manufacturing of our OLED displays to Chinese foundries. We expect these foundries to offer their own products. Our display products will compete with other displays utilizing these and other competing display technologies.

There are many companies whose sole business is the development and manufacture of optical lenses, backlights, ASICs, software and noise cancellation products.ASICs. These companies may have significantly more intellectual property and experience than we do in the design and development of these components. We do not manufacture optical lenses, backlights, or ASICs but we either have them made to our specifications or buy standard off-the-shelf products.

An important part of our product development strategy is to seek, when appropriate, protection for our products and proprietary technology through the use of various United StatesU.S. and foreign patents and contractual arrangements. We intend to prosecute and defend our proprietary technology aggressively. Many of our United StatesU.S. patents and applications have counterpart foreign patents, foreign patent applications or international patent applications through the Patent Cooperation Treaty.

Human Capital Resources

As of December 25, 2021, our consolidated business employed 181 individuals. Of these employees, 8 hold Ph.D. degrees in Material Science, Electrical Engineering or Physics. Our management and professional employees have significant prior experience in semiconductor materials, device transistor and display processing, optical design, manufacturing and other related technologies. Our employees are located in the U.S., Europe and Asia and the laws regarding employee relationships are different by jurisdiction. None of our employees are covered by a collective bargaining agreement. We have policies to prevent discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. We take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are hired and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, ethnicity, religion, sex, or national origin. We also take affirmative action to employ and advance veterans in employment. We consider relations with our employees to be good.

In 2004, we finalized and adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics regarding the standards of conduct of our directors, officers and employees. The code is reviewed and updated periodically by our Board or Directors and is available on our website at www.kopin.com.

Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) Initiatives

We strive to create and maintain a working environment that fosters honesty and hard work and rewards all of our employees’ hard work. We endeavor to make Kopin Corporation a place people are proud to be associated with. With the growing awareness of environmental and social issues we are in the process of creating a more formalized ESG strategy. Our initial process for the strategy creation includes work by a cross-functional ESG team of leaders representing operations, human resources, supply chain, finance, marketing, and facilities departments. We also utilize third-party facility, environmental and legal consulting services. These third-party consultants are assisting us in creating an ESG materiality assessment from which we can develop a base-line assessment for monitoring our progress.

We provide recurring company-wide communication of our formalized values, a summary of which are:

We are not a member of the Responsible Business Alliance (“RBA”); however, we have utilized the themes of the RBA Code of Conduct to supplement our Code of Ethics, including the RBA Code’s five critical areas of corporate social responsibility: labor, health and safety, environment, management systems, and ethics. We believe that following the values noted above, we believe we can achieve our business objectives and long-term stockholder value while doing our part in each of these areas. For additional information, see “Human Capital Management” in this Form 10-K below.

Care for Our People

● We believe in upholding the principles of human rights, worker safety, and observing fair labor practices within our organization.

● We respect different viewpoints and perspectives, and that ultimately individual thoughts create innovation and achieve better results. We continually evaluate how we provide organizational training, formalize company values, and revitalize recruitment strategy.

● We are committed to employee safety. We have installed safety protocols and monitoring systems. We have periodic audits by third parties to test our systems and perform preventive maintenance. Our policies prohibit an employee from being alone in the facility or in unsupervised areas of our facility.

Environmental Responsibility

● We are committed to protecting the natural environment and our community by complying with all applicable legal and regulatory requirements. We maintain an environmental management system and a specific framework for implementing relevant sustainable practices.

● We ask our employees to help us accomplish environmental sustainability by looking for opportunities to conserve energy, reduce consumption of natural resources, preserve air and water quality, manage waste properly, and reuse and recycle, and reduce the use of toxic substances in our operations where possible, including, in particular, in our clean room and lab facilities. Our clean room facility emissions are less than permitting and reporting thresholds, and we track emissions monthly to verify compliance with the regulations.

● We look for ways to reduce energy consumption in our facilities around the world, including upgrades and or retrofits to smart HVAC systems. For instance, we have installed variable speed fans, which only turn-on based on various metrics, thereby reducing energy usage.

Ethics & Corporate Responsibility

● We are committed to ensuring ethical organizational governance, embracing diversity and inclusion in the board room and throughout the organization.

● We are committed to observing fair, transparent, and accountable operating practices.

● We seek to create and foster a healthy, balanced, and ethical work environment for everyone in our organization. To this end, we promote an ethical organizational culture and encourage all employees to raise questions or concerns about actual or potential ethical issues and company policies and to offer suggestions about how we can make our organization better. We have a Whistleblower Ethics Hotline that includes global telephone access and online access. We have an independent third party periodically test the Whistleblower Ethics Hotline.

Supply Chain Responsibility

● We intend to request that our suppliers adhere to the RBA Code of Conduct or its equivalent by flowing this requirement through our commercial contracts.

● We also adhere to Rule 13p-1 under the Exchange Act and support efforts to avoid sourcing conflict minerals that directly or indirectly finance or benefit armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo (or DRC) and in adjoining countries. Consistent with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Due Diligence Guidance concerning conflict minerals, we adopted the Conflict Free Sourcing Initiative Due Diligence reporting process and seek to obtain conflict minerals content declarations from our suppliers each year, all in an effort to promote supply chain transparency. We do not directly source tin, tantalum, tungsten, or gold (collectively referred to as 3TG) from mines, smelters or refiners, and we are in most cases several or more levels removed from these supply chain participants.

Government Regulations

Our business is subject to extensive regulation in the industries we serve. We deal with numerous U.S. government agencies and entities, including but not limited to branches of the Department of Defense (“DoD”).

U.S. defense contractors are among our largest customers, representing a substantial majority of our total revenues. The U.S. government may terminate a contract with us or our customers either “for convenience” (for instance, due to a change in its perceived needs) or if we default due to our failure or the failure of a general or subcontractor to perform under the contract. If the federal government terminates a contract with one of our customers, our contract with our customers generally would entitle us to recover only our incurred or committed costs, settlement expenses and possibly profit on the work completed prior to termination. However, under certain circumstances, our recovery costs upon termination for convenience of such a contract may be limited. If terminated by the government as a result of our default, we could be liable for payments made to us for undelivered goods or services, additional costs the government incurs in acquiring undelivered goods or services from another source and any other damages it suffers.

In addition, we are subject to a variety of federal, state and local governmental regulations including the use, storage, discharge and disposal of toxic, volatile or otherwise hazardous chemicals used in our manufacturing process. The failure to comply with present or future regulations could result in fines being imposed on us, suspension of production or cessation of operations. Any failure on our part to control the use of, or adequately restrict the discharge of, hazardous substances, or otherwise comply with environmental regulations, could subject us to significant future liabilities. We also cannot be certain that past use or disposal of environmentally sensitive materials in conformity with then existing environmental laws and regulations will protect us from required remediation or other liabilities under current or future environmental laws or regulations. Certain chemicals we import are subject to regulation by the U.S. government. If we or our suppliers do not comply with applicable laws, we could be subject to adverse government actions and may not be able to import critical supplies.

We are also subject to federal International Traffic in Arms Regulations (“ITAR”) laws which regulate the protection (cybersecurity) and export of technical data and export of products to other nations that may use such data or products for defense purposes. The failure to comply with present or future regulations could result in fines being imposed on us, suspension of production, or a cessation of operations. Any failure on our part to obtain any required licenses for the export of technical data and/or export of our products or to otherwise comply with ITAR, could subject us to significant future liabilities.

We are also subject to federal importation laws that regulate the importation of raw materials and equipment from other nations that are used in our products. The failure to comply with present or future regulations could result in fines being imposed on us, suspension of production, or a cessation of operations.

Investments in Related Businesses

On September 30, 2019 we entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement (the “Solos Purchase Agreement”) with Solos Technology Limited (“Solos Technology”), pursuant to which we sold and licensed certain assets of our Solos (“Solos”) product line and Whisper Audio (“Whisper”) technology. As consideration for the transaction, we received 1,172,000 common shares representing a 20.0% equity stake in the Solos Technology’s parent company, Solos Incorporation (“Solos Inc”). Our 20.0% equity stake will be maintained until Solos Inc. has raised a total of $7.5 million in equity financing after which we will need to participate in future equity offerings or our ownership percentage will be diluted.

We acquired an equity interest in Lenovo New Vision in the first quarter of 2018 for $1.0 million and the Company also contributed certain intellectual property. As of December 25, 2021, we own an 11% interest in this investment and the carrying value of our investment is $3.9 million.

We acquired an equity interest in a medical device company in 2021. As of December 25, 2021 the carrying value of this investment is $0.3 million.

We own 100% of the outstanding common stock of NVIS and FDD and 80% of the outstanding common stock of e-MDT America (“eMDT”) and we consolidate each of their financial results within our consolidated financial statements.

We terminated operations of our subsidiary, Kopin Software Ltd., in the third quarter of 2019 and are in the process of liquidating it.

We may from time to time make further equity investments in these and other companies engaged in certain aspects of the display, electronics, optical and software industries as part of our business strategy. In addition, the wearable computing product market is relatively new and there may be other technologies we need to invest in to enhance our product offering. These investments may not provide us with any financial return or other benefit and any losses by these companies or associated losses in our investments may negatively impact our operating results.

Sources and Availability of Raw Materials and Components

We rely on third-party independent contractors for certain integrated circuit chip sets, backlights and other critical raw materials such as special glasses, wafers and chemicals. In addition, our CyberDisplay subassemblies, HLAs, binocular display modules, and other modules include lenses, backlights, printed circuit boards and other components that we purchase from third-party suppliers. Some of these third-party contractors and suppliers are small companies with limited financial resources. In addition, our defense customers typically buy a small number of units, which prevents us from qualifying and buying components economically from multiple vendors. As a result, we are highly dependent on a select number of third-party contractors and suppliers.

Availability Information

We make available free of charge through our website, www.kopin.com, our Annual Reports on Form 10-K and other reports that we file or furnish with the SEC as soon as reasonably practicable after they are filed or furnished, as well as certain of our corporate governance policies, including the charters for the Board of Directors’ audit, compensation and nominating and corporate governance committees and our code of ethics, corporate governance guidelines and whistleblower policy. We will also provide to any person without charge, upon request, a copy of any of the foregoing materials. Any such request must be made in writing to us, c/o Investor Relations, Kopin Corporation, 125 North Drive, Westborough, MA, 01581.

We operate in a changing global environment that involves numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could materially adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, and competitive position. Accordingly, our business and financial results are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those set forth below or additional risks and uncertainties that are not currently known to us or that we currently do not believe to be material may also negatively affect our business and financial results. The risk factors set forth below describe what we believe to be the material risks, and uncertainties related to our financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, and competitive position. We have included the risk factors below without any reflection on the importance of, or likelihood of, any particular risk factor.

We have experienced a history of losses, have a significant accumulated deficit, have had negative cash flow from operating activities in fiscal years 2021, 2020, and 2019, and expect to have negative cash flow from operating activities in fiscal year 2022. Since inception, we have incurred significant net operating losses. As of December 25, 2021, we had an accumulated deficit of $319.1 million. At December 25, 2021 and December 26, 2020, we had $29.3 million and $20.7 million of cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities, respectively. For the years 2021 and 2020, net cash used in operating activities was $10.7 million and $4.4 million, respectively. The increase in our cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities is primarily a result of sales of our common stock which partially offset funding our operating losses, of which a significant component is our investments in research and development. We plan to continue to invest in research and development even during periods when we are not profitable, which may result in our incurring losses from operations and negative cash flow. If we do not soon achieve and maintain positive cash flow and profitability, our financial condition will ultimately be materially and adversely affected, and we will be required to raise additional capital. We may not be able to raise any necessary capital on commercially reasonable terms or at all. If we fail to achieve or maintain profitability on a quarterly or annual basis within the timeframe expected by investors, the market price of our common stock may decline.

There is a global shortage of critical semiconductor and other raw materials. It is important to understand that the failure to procure one semiconductor component can prevent the entire product from being manufactured and sold. We do not manufacture the integrated circuit chip sets that are used to in our display products and our customers’ products. Instead, we rely on third party independent vendors and subcontractors for these integrated circuit chip sets. We purchase critical raw materials such as special glasses, special silicon on insulator (“SOI”) wafers, light emitting diodes, adhesives, chemicals, lenses, backlights, printed circuit boards and other components from third-party suppliers. We sell a relatively small volume of defense products and therefore our purchase of raw materials for our defense business is also relatively small. Because our purchase of raw materials is relatively small, qualifying and buying components from multiple vendors is not economically possible. In addition, our defense products typically have long life cycles which means many of the raw materials are based on older technology. We periodically receive notices from suppliers of our critical raw materials regarding their plans to stop selling those raw materials. This requires us to identify another raw material and/or raw material supplier to replace the discontinued item/supplier, which would then require us to internally re-qualify the product with the new material as well as possibly re-qualify the product with our customer. The cost to requalify is expensive and time consuming and may result in the suspension of production. If any of these third party contractors or suppliers were unable or unwilling to supply these integrated circuit chip sets or critical raw materials to us, whether for business or regulatory reasons, we would be unable to manufacture and sell our display products until a replacement material could be found. We may not be able to find a replacement material or if we are able to find a replacement material, we may be unable to sell our products until they have been qualified both internally and with the customer. Lower volume purchases may make it uneconomical for some of our suppliers to provide the raw materials we need. We cannot assure that a replacement third-party contractor or supplier could be found on reasonable terms or in a timely manner. Any interruption in our ability to manufacture and distribute our display products could cause our display business to be unsuccessful and the price of our common stock may decline.

Most of our defense sales are on a fixed-price basis, which could subject us to losses if there are cost overruns. Under a fixed-price contract, we receive only the amount indicated in the contract, regardless of the actual cost to produce the goods. While firm fixed-price contracts allow us to benefit from potential cost savings, they also expose us to the risk of cost overruns. If the initial estimates that we use to calculate the sales price and the cost to perform the work prove to be incorrect, we could incur losses. We have had situations where we have underestimated the cost of a program and incurred losses on fulfilling the contract. As discussed above we are seeing a global shortage of semiconductors and other raw materials which is resulting in significant increase in raw material prices. In addition, the U.S. is experiencing inflation levels not seen in many years which is driving higher labor costs. Some of our contracts have specific provisions relating to cost, scheduling, and performance. If we fail to meet the terms specified in those contracts, then our cost to perform the work could increase, which would adversely affect our financial position and results of operations. Some of the contracts we bid on have Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (“IDIQ”) provisions. This means we are bidding a fixed price but are not assured of the quantity the government will buy or when it will buy during the term of the contract. This means we are exposed to the risk of price increases for labor, overhead and raw materials during the term of the contract. We may incur losses on fixed-price and IDIQ contracts that we had expected to be profitable, or such contracts may be less profitable than expected, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

The continued pervasiveness of the COVID19 pandemic, or the widespread outbreak of any other illness or any other communicable disease, or any other public health crisis, could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected the global and national economy, disrupted global supply chains, and created significant volatility in and disruption of financial markets. The extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our operational and financial performance, including the ability to execute business strategies and initiatives in the expected time frame, will depend on future developments, including the emergence and spread of new variants of the virus and related governmental and societal responses and restrictions on travel and transportation or otherwise, and related governmental and societal responses and restrictions on travel and transportation or otherwise, all of which are uncertain and cannot be predicted at this time. An extended period of global supply chain and economic disruption could materially affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, and access to sources of liquidity.

We generally do not have long-term contracts with our customers, which makes forecasting our revenues and operating results difficult. We generally do not enter into long-term agreements with our customers obligating them to purchase our products. Our business is characterized by short-term purchase orders with shipment schedules within one year and we generally permit orders to be canceled or rescheduled before shipment without significant penalty. As a result, our customers may cease purchasing our products at any time, which makes forecasting our revenues difficult. In addition, due to the absence of substantial non-cancelable backlog, we typically plan our production and inventory levels based on internal forecasts of customer demand, which are highly unpredictable and can fluctuate substantially. The uncertainty of product orders makes it difficult for us to forecast our sales and allocate our resources in a manner consistent with our actual sales. Moreover, our expense levels and the amounts we invest in capital equipment and new product development costs are based in part on our expectations of future sales and, if our expectations regarding future sales are inaccurate, we may be unable to reduce costs in a timely manner to adjust for sales shortfalls, and our results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.

Fluctuations in operating results make financial forecasting difficult and could adversely affect the price of our common stock. Our quarterly and annual revenues and operating results may fluctuate significantly for numerous reasons, including:

As a result of these and other factors, investors should not rely on our revenues and our operating results for any one quarter or year as an indication of our future revenues or operating results. If our quarterly revenues or results of operations fall below expectations of investors or public market analysts, the price of our common stock could fall substantially.

Our revenues and cash flows could be negatively affected if sales of our Display products for defense applications significantly decline or the current defense development programs are either cancelled or ultimately do not result in future product sales. The sale of our display products to the military for use in thermal weapon sights and avionic helmets have been a primary source of our defense revenues and cash flows over the last several years. We currently are included in the Family Weapon Sight (“FWS”) Individual program and the Joint Strike Fighter (F-35) jet fighter program. We are in development and qualification in additional defense programs related to avionic helmets, armored vehicles and soldier rifle scopes. Our ability to generate revenues and cash flow from sales to the U.S. military depends on our Display products remaining qualified in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, FWS and other U.S. defense programs and on the U.S. government/military funding these programs. Our ability to generate revenues and cash flows also depends on the products we are developing and qualifying for other U.S. military programs being successfully qualified and the U.S. government/military funding these programs. We may not be awarded contracts for the systems we are in qualification for, and for the systems we are qualified for we may only be awarded a portion of the program as the U.S. military looks to have multiple sources when possible. In addition, the government could postpone or cancel these programs. We believe the U.S. Department of Defense is evaluating alternative display technologies for the F-35 Strike Fighter program and other defense programs, and we may need to requalify for any replacement display technologies. Our ability to generate revenues and cash flow from sales to the U.S. military also depends on winning contracts over our competitors. If we are unable to be qualified into new U.S. defense programs, remain qualified in existing programs, or win orders against our competition, or if defense programs are not funded, then our ability to generate revenues and achieve profitability and positive cash flow will be negatively impacted.

Our customers who purchase display products for defense applications typically incorporate our products into their products, which are sold to the U.S. government under contracts. U.S. government contracts generally are not fully funded at inception and may be terminated or modified prior to completion, which could adversely affect our business. Congress funds the vast majority of the federal budget on an annual basis, and Congress often does not provide agencies with all the money requested in their budget. Many of our customers’ contracts cover multiple years and, as such, are not fully funded at contract award. If Congress or a U.S. government agency chooses to spend money on other programs, our customers’ contracts may be terminated for convenience. Federal laws, collectively called the Anti-Deficiency Act, prohibit involving the government in any obligation to pay money before funds have been appropriated for that purpose, unless otherwise allowed by law. Therefore, the Anti-Deficiency Act indirectly regulates how agencies award our contracts and pay our invoices. Federal government contracts generally contain provisions that provide the federal government rights and remedies not typically found in commercial contracts, including provisions permitting the federal government to, among other things: terminate our existing contracts; modify some of the terms and conditions in our existing contracts; subject the award to protest or challenge by competitors; suspend work under existing multiple year contracts and related delivery orders; and claim rights in technologies and systems invented, developed or produced by us.

The federal government may terminate a contract with us or our customers either “for convenience” (for instance, due to a change in its perceived needs) or if we default due to our failure or the failure of a general or subcontractor to perform under the contract. If the federal government terminates a contract with one of our customers, our contract with our customers generally would entitle us to recover only our incurred or committed costs, settlement expenses and possibly retain any profit on the work that was completed prior to termination. However, under certain circumstances, our recovery costs upon termination for convenience of such a contract may be limited. As is common with government contractors, we have experienced occasional performance issues under some of our contracts. We have received Stop Work Orders wherein work is suspended pending a review of the program. We may in the future receive show-cause or cure notices under contracts that, if not addressed to the federal government’s satisfaction, could give the government the right to terminate those contracts for default or to cease procuring our services under those contracts.

In addition, U.S. government contracts and subcontracts typically involve long purchase and payment cycles, competitive bidding, qualification requirements, delays or changes in funding, extensive specification and performance requirements, price negotiations and milestone requirements. Each U.S. government agency often also maintains its own rules and regulations with which we must comply, and which can vary significantly among agencies.

We recognize revenue for our defense contracts and some commercial contracts based on percentage of completion that requires significant management judgement, and errors in our judgement could result in our revenue being overstated or understated and the profits or loss reported could be subject to adjustment. For certain contracts with the U.S. government, the Company recognizes revenue over time as we perform services or deliver goods. The continuous transfer of control to, or performance of services for, the customer is subject to liability clauses in the contract that allow the U.S. government to unilaterally terminate the contract for convenience, pay us for costs incurred plus a reasonable profit and take control of any work in process. Contracts with commercial customers may have a similar liability clause. In situations where control transfers or services are performed over time, revenue is recognized based on the extent of progress towards completion of the performance obligation. We generally use the cost-to-cost approach to measure the extent of progress towards completion of the contractual obligation for our contracts. Under the cost-to-cost measure approach, the extent of progress towards completion is measured based on the ratio of costs incurred to date to the total estimated costs at completion of the performance obligation. Revenues are recorded proportionally as costs are incurred. Accounting for design, development and production contracts requires judgment relative to assessing risks, estimating contract revenues and costs and making assumptions for schedule and technical issues. Due to the size and nature of the work required to be performed on many of our contracts, the estimation of total revenue and cost at completion is complicated and subject to many variables. Contract costs include material, labor and subcontracting costs, as well as an allocation of indirect costs. We have to make assumptions regarding the number of labor hours required to complete a task, the complexity of the work to be performed, the availability and cost of materials and performance by our subcontractors. For contract change orders, claims or similar items, we apply judgment in estimating the amounts and assessing the potential for realization. These amounts are only included in contract value when they can be reliably estimated, and realization is considered probable. If our estimate of total contract costs or our determination of whether the customer agrees that a milestone is achieved is incorrect, our revenue could be overstated or understated, and the profits or loss reported could be subject to adjustment. If our revenues and costs require adjustment our stock price could decline.

A decline in the U.S. government defense budget, changes in spending or budgetary priorities, a prolonged U.S. government shutdown or delays in contract awards may significantly and adversely affect our future revenues, cash flow and financial results. In addition to the Anti-Deficiency Act, in recent years, U.S. government appropriations have been affected by larger U.S. government budgetary issues and related legislation. As a result, DoD funding levels have fluctuated and been difficult to predict. Future spending levels are subject to a wide range of factors, including Congressional action. In addition, in recent years the U.S. government has been unable to complete its budget process before the end of its fiscal year, resulting in both a government shutdown and continuing resolutions to extend sufficient funds only for U.S. government agencies to continue operating. Most recently, the federal government was shut down due to lack of funding for over one month between late 2018 and early 2019. Additionally, the national debt has recently threatened to reach the statutory debt ceiling, and such an event in future years could result in the U.S. government defaulting on its debts.

As a result, defense spending levels are difficult to predict beyond the near-term due to numerous factors, including the external threat environment, future government priorities and the state of government finances. Significant changes in defense spending or changes in U.S. government priorities, policies and requirements could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition or liquidity.

If we fail to comply with complex procurement laws and regulations, we could lose business and be liable for various penalties or sanctions. We must comply with laws and regulations relating to the formation, administration and performance of federal government contracts. These laws and regulations affect how we conduct business with our federal government customers. In complying with these laws and regulations, we may incur additional costs, and non-compliance may result in fines and penalties, including contractual damages. Among the more significant laws and regulations affecting our business are:

Our contracting agency customers may review our performance under and compliance with the terms of our federal government contracts. If a government review or investigation uncovers improper or illegal activities, we may be subject to civil or criminal penalties or administrative sanctions, including:

Additionally, the False Claims Act provides for substantial civil penalties where, for example, a contractor presents a false or fraudulent claim to the government for payment or approval. Civil actions under the False Claims Act may be brought by the government or by other persons on behalf of the government (who may then share a portion of any recovery).

If we fail to comply with these laws and regulations, we may also suffer harm to our reputation, which could impair our ability to win awards of contracts in the future or receive renewals of existing contracts. If we are subject to civil or criminal penalties and administrative sanctions or suffer harm to our reputation, our current business, future prospects, financial condition or operating results could be materially harmed.

The U.S. government may also revise its procurement practices or adopt new contracting rules and regulations, including cost accounting standards, at any time. Any new contracting methods could be costly to satisfy, be administratively difficult for us to implement and could impair our ability to obtain new contracts.

Our ability to manufacture and distribute our Display products would be severely limited if the foundries that we rely on to manufacture integrated circuits for our Display products fail to provide those services. We depend principally on a Taiwanese foundry for the fabrication of integrated circuits for our defense display products. In addition, our strategy is to use Chinese foundries services for OLED deposition and processing of OLED displays. We also use foundries in Korea and France. We have no long-term contracts with the foundries we use and from time to time we have been put on allocation, which means the foundry will limit the number of wafers they will process for us. If foundries were to terminate or amend their arrangement with us or become unable to provide the required capacity, services and or quality on a timely basis, we may not be able to manufacture and ship our Display products or we may be forced to manufacture them in limited quantities until replacement foundry services can be obtained. Furthermore, we cannot assure that we would be able to establish alternative manufacturing and packaging relationships on acceptable terms.

Our reliance on these foundries involves certain risks, including but not limited to:

Due to natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons that have occasionally occurred in Asia, many Taiwanese companies, including the Taiwanese foundry we use, have experienced related business interruptions. Our business could suffer significantly if any of the foundries we use have their operations disrupted for an extended period of time due to natural disaster, political unrest or financial instability.

We may be unable to adequately control purchase pricing of certain critical materials, which may materially adversely affect our sales or profitability. We have no long-term pricing contracts on foundry wafers and certain other materials that represent a significant portion of product bill of material costs. We cannot provide assurance against supplier price increases that negatively impact the cost of producing products, which may adversely affect sales or profitability. Finding and/or qualifying a more cost-effective replacement supplier may take significant time.

Our investments in the development and sale of OLED microdisplays may not be successful which may materially adversely affect our sales, profitability and cash flow. Hstorically, we have sold products that incorporate our proprietary AMLCDs. We believe that for certain applications OLED microdisplays have performance advantages and we believe some customers have switched or will want to switch from AMCLDs to OLED microdisplays in the next two to three years. We are in the process of designing and developing OLED microdisplays. We expect to make significant monetary investments in their development, though our plan is to outsource their production. We have little experience in production outsourcing. If we are unsuccessful in designing and developing OLED microdisplays or if we are unable to find cost-effective third party production partners, our sales and profitability may be negatively affected.

The markets in which we operate are highly competitive and rapidly changing and we may be unable to compete successfully. There are a number of companies that develop or may develop products that compete in our targeted markets. The individual components that we offer for sale (displays, optical lenses, backlights and ASICs) are also offered by companies whose sole business focuses on that individual component. For example, there are companies whose sole business is to sell optical lenses. Accordingly, our strategy requires us to develop technologies and to compete in multiple markets. Some of our competitors are much larger than we are and have significantly greater financial, development and marketing resources than we do. The competition in these markets could adversely affect our operating results by reducing the volume of the products we sell or the prices we can charge. These competitors may be able to respond more rapidly than us to new or emerging technologies or changes in customer requirements. They may also devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of their products than we do.

Our success will depend substantially upon our ability to enhance our products and technologies and to develop and introduce, on a timely and cost-effective basis, new products and features that meet changing customer requirements and incorporate technological enhancements. If we are unable to develop new products and enhance functionalities or technologies to adapt to these changes, our business will suffer.

Disruptions of our production could adversely affect our operating results. If we were to experience any significant disruption in the operation of our facilities, we would be unable to supply our products to our customers. Many of our sales contracts include financial penalties for late delivery. In the past, we have experienced power outages at our facilities, which ranged in duration from one to four days. We have certain critical pieces of equipment necessary to operate our facilities that are no longer offered for sale and we may not have service contracts or spare parts for the equipment. Additionally, as we introduce new equipment into our manufacturing processes, our display products could be subject to especially wide variations in manufacturing yields and efficiency. We may experience manufacturing problems that would result in delays in product introduction and delivery or yield fluctuations.

A disruption to our information technology systems could significantly impact our operations, revenue and profitability. Our data processing systems and our Enterprise Resource Planning (“ERP”) software are cloud-based and hosted by third parties. We also use software packages that are no longer supported by their developer. We have experienced short-term (i.e., a few days) interruptions in our Internet connectivity. An interruption of the third party systems or the infrastructure that allows us to connect to the third party systems for an extended period may affect our ability to operate our business and process transactions, which could result in a decline in sales and affect our ability to achieve or maintain profitability.

If our information technology security systems were infiltrated and confidential and/or proprietary information were taken, we could be subject to fines, lawsuits and loss of customers. Significantly larger organizations with much greater resources than us have been the victim of cybercrimes. We routinely receive emails probing our Internet security, and our Internet security systems have detected outside organizations attempting to install Trojan virus software packages in our systems. We rely on our electronic information systems to perform the routine transactions to run our business. We transact business over the Internet with customers, vendors and our subsidiaries and have implemented security measures to protect unauthorized access to this information. We have also implemented security policies that limit access via the Internet from the Company to the outside world based on the individual’s position in the Company. We routinely receive security patches from software providers for the software we use. Our primary concerns are inappropriate access to personnel information, information covered under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation, product designs and manufacturing information, financial information and our intellectual property, trade secrets and know-how.

We may not achieve some or all of the anticipated benefits of our equity investments. At December 25, 2021 we had equity investments in companies totaling $4.6 million, where we have limited, if any, control over their governance, financial reporting and operations. As a result, we face certain operating, financial and other risks relating to these investments, including risks related to the financial strength of the investments. We are required to periodically review the value of these investments for impairment. For example, in the fourth quarter of 2019, we reviewed the financial condition and other factors of RealWear and as a result, in the fourth quarter of 2019, we recorded an impairment charge of $5.2 million to reduce our investment in RealWear to zero. These investments may not contribute to our earnings or cash flows. In addition, these investments may be required to raise additional capital, which may result in our ownership percentage being decreased.

If we are unable to obtain or maintain existing software license relationships or other relationships relating to the intellectual property we use, our ability to grow revenue and achieve profitability and positive cash flow may be negatively affected. Our headset systems include software that we license from other companies. Should we violate the terms of a license, our license could be canceled. Companies may decide to stop supporting the software we license or new versions of the software may not be compatible with our software, which would require us to rewrite our software, which we may not be able to do. Moreover, the license fees we pay may be increased, which would negatively affect our ability to achieve profitability and positive cash flow.

We may incur substantial costs in defending our intellectual property and may not be successful in protecting our intellectual property and proprietary rights. Our success depends in part on our ability to protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights. We have obtained certain domestic and foreign patents and we intend to continue to seek patents on our inventions when appropriate. We also attempt to protect our proprietary information with contractual arrangements and under trade secret laws. Our employees and consultants generally enter into agreements containing provisions with respect to confidentiality and the assignment of rights to us for inventions made by them while in our employ or consulting for us. These measures may not adequately protect our intellectual property or proprietary rights. Existing trade secret, trademark and copyright laws afford only limited protection and our patents could be invalidated, held to be unenforceable or circumvented. Moreover, the laws of certain foreign countries in which our products are or may be manufactured or sold may not provide full protection of our intellectual property rights. Misappropriation of our technology and the costs of defending our intellectual property rights from misappropriation could substantially impair our business. If we are unable to protect our intellectual property or proprietary rights, our business may not be successful, and the price of our common stock may decline.

The process of seeking patent protection can be time consuming and expensive and we cannot be certain that patents will be issued from currently pending or future patent applicationsapplications. We cannot be certain that domestic or foreign intellectual property laws will allow protection of our intellectual property rights or that others will not independently develop similar products, duplicate our existingproducts or design around any patents issued or any new patents that may be issued will be sufficient in scope and strength to provide meaningful protection or any commercial advantagelicensed to us. We may be subject to or may initiate contested patent or patent application proceedings in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, foreign patent offices or the courts, which can demand significant financial and management resources. Patent applications in the United StatesU.S. typically are maintained in secrecy until they are published about eighteen18 months after their earliest claim to priority; sincepriority. As publication of discoveries in the scientific and patent literature lags behind actual discoveries, we cannot be certain that we were the first to conceive of inventions covered by our pending patent applications or the first to file patent applications on such inventions. We also cannot be certain that our pending patent applications or those of our licensors will result in issued patents or that any issued patents will affordprovide adequate protection against a competitor. In addition, we cannot be certain that others will not obtain patents that we would need to license circumventor could force us to retool or cease manufacturing and sales of products covered by these patents, nor can we be sure that licenses, if needed, would be available to us on favorable terms, if at all.

We also attempt to protect our proprietary information with contractual arrangements and under trade secret laws. We believe that our future success will depend primarily upon the technical expertise, creative skills and management