RIHT Rightscorp Inc (PK)

ITEM 1A. Risk Factors.

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. Potential investors should consider carefully the risks and uncertainties described below together with all other information contained in this report before making investment decisions with respect to our common stock.

Risks Related to our Company and our Business

We have a limited operating history and are subject to the risks encountered by early-stage companies.

Rightscorp Delaware was formed on January 20, 2011. Because we have a limited operating history, our operating prospects should be considered in light of the risks and uncertainties frequently encountered by early-stage companies in rapidly evolving markets. These risks include:

If we do not successfully address these risks, our business would be significantly harmed.

Our independent registered public accounting firm has expressed substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern, which may hinder our ability to obtain future financing.

We have a history of losses and may continue to incur operating and net losses for the foreseeable future. For the year ended December 31, 2016, we incurred a net loss of $1,355,747 and used cash in operating activities of $807,530, and at December 31, 2016, we had a stockholders’ deficiency of $2,092,060. These factors raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date that financial statements are issued. As a result, our independent registered public accounting firm included an explanatory paragraph in its report on our financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2016 with respect to this uncertainty. This going concern opinion could materially limit our ability to raise additional funds through the issuance of new debt or equity securities or otherwise, and future reports on our financial statements may also include an explanatory paragraph with respect to our ability to continue as a going concern.

In order to continue as a going concern, develop a reliable source of revenues, and achieve a profitable level of operations the Company will need, among other things, additional capital resources. Management’s plans to continue as a going concern include raising additional capital through borrowings and the sale of common stock. No assurance can be given that any future financing will be available or, if available, that it will be on terms that are satisfactory to the Company. Even if the Company is able to obtain additional financing, it may contain undue restrictions on our operations, in the case of debt financing, or cause substantial dilution for our stockholders, in case or equity financing.

We will need significant additional capital, which we may be unable to obtain.

We expect that we will need to obtain additional financing over time to fund operations. Our management cannot predict the extent to which we will require additional financing, and can provide no assurance that additional financing will be available on favorable terms or at all. The rights of the holders of any debt or equity that may be issued in the future could be senior to the rights of common shareholders, and any future issuance of equity could result in the dilution of our common shareholders’ proportionate equity interests in our company. Failure to obtain financing or an inability to obtain financing on unattractive terms could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, results of operation and financial condition.

Our resources may not be sufficient to manage our potential growth; failure to properly manage our potential growth would be detrimental to our business.

We may fail to adequately manage our potential future growth. Any growth in our operations will place a significant strain on our administrative, financial and operational resources, and increase demands on our management and on our operational and administrative systems, controls and other resources. We cannot assure you that our existing personnel, systems, procedures or controls will be adequate to support our operations in the future or that we will be able to successfully implement appropriate measures consistent with our growth strategy. As part of this growth, we may have to implement new operational and financial systems, procedures and controls to expand, train and manage our employee base, and maintain close coordination among our technical, accounting, finance, marketing and sales staff. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so, or that if we are able to do so, we will be able to effectively integrate them into our existing staff and systems. To the extent we acquire businesses, we will also need to integrate and assimilate new operations, technologies and personnel. If we are unable to manage growth effectively, such as if our sales and marketing efforts exceed our capacity to install, maintain and service our products or if new employees are unable to achieve performance levels, our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected.

We will need to increase the size of our organization, and we may be unable to manage rapid growth effectively.

Our failure to manage growth effectively could have a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. We anticipate that a period of significant expansion will be required to address possible acquisitions of business, products, or rights, and potential internal growth to handle licensing and research activities. This expansion will place a significant strain on management, operational and financial resources. To manage the expected growth of our operations and personnel, we must both improve our existing operational and financial systems, procedures and controls and implement new systems, procedures and controls. We must also expand our finance, administrative, and operations staff. Our current personnel, systems, procedures and controls may not adequately support future operations. Management may be unable to hire, train, retain, motivate and manage necessary personnel or to identify, manage and exploit existing and potential strategic relationships and market opportunities.

We are dependent on the continued services and performance of our senior management, the loss of any of whom could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

Our future performance depends on the continued services and continuing contributions of our senior management to execute our business plan, and to identify and pursue new opportunities and product innovations. The loss of services of senior management, particularly Christopher Sabec, Rightscorp Delaware’s founder, and Cecil Kyte, our chief executive officer, could significantly delay or prevent the achievement of our strategic objectives. The loss of the services of senior management for any reason could adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

Our ability to protect our intellectual property and proprietary technology through patents and other means is uncertain and may be inadequate, which would have a material and adverse effect on us.

Our success depends significantly on our ability to protect our proprietary rights to the technologies used in our products. In particular, we have twenty-six patent applications pending worldwide for our system of identifying and collecting settlement payments for repeat copyright infringements. Even if our pending patents are granted, we cannot assure you that we will be able to control all of the rights for all of our intellectual property. We rely on patent protection, as well as a combination of copyright, trade secret and trademark laws and nondisclosure, confidentiality and other contractual restrictions to protect our proprietary technology, including our licensed technology. However, these legal means afford only limited protection and may not adequately protect our rights or permit us to gain or keep any competitive advantage. For example, our pending United States and foreign patent applications may not issue as patents in a form that will be advantageous to us or may issue and be subsequently successfully challenged by others and invalidated. Both the patent application process and the process of managing patent disputes can be time-consuming and expensive. Competitors may be able to design around our patents or develop products which provide outcomes which are comparable or even superior to ours. Steps that we have taken to protect our intellectual property and proprietary technology, including entering into confidentiality agreements and intellectual property assignment agreements with some of our officers, employees, consultants and advisors, may not provide meaningful protection for our trade secrets or other proprietary information in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure or other breaches of the agreements. Furthermore, the laws of foreign countries may not protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as do the laws of the United States.

In the event a competitor infringes upon our licensed or pending patent or other intellectual property rights, enforcing those rights may be costly, uncertain, difficult and time consuming. Even if successful, litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights or to defend our patents against challenge could be expensive and time consuming and could divert our management’s attention. We may not have sufficient resources to enforce our intellectual property rights or to defend our patents rights against a challenge. The failure to obtain patents and/or protect our intellectual property rights could have a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our patent applications and licenses may be subject to challenge on validity grounds, and our patent applications may be rejected.

We rely on our patent applications, licenses and other intellectual property rights to give us a competitive advantage. Whether a patent application should be granted, and if granted whether it would be valid, is a complex matter of science and law, and therefore we cannot be certain that, if challenged, our patents (should any be granted), patent applications and/or other intellectual property rights would be upheld. If one or more of these intellectual property rights are invalidated, rejected or found unenforceable, that could reduce or eliminate any competitive advantage we might otherwise have had.

We may become subject to claims of infringement or misappropriation of the intellectual property rights of others, which could prohibit us from developing our products, require us to obtain licenses from third parties or to develop non-infringing alternatives and subject us to substantial monetary damages.

Third parties could, in the future, assert infringement or misappropriation claims against us with respect to products we develop. Whether a product infringes a patent or misappropriates other intellectual property involves complex legal and factual issues, the determination of which is often uncertain. Therefore, we cannot be certain that we have not infringed the intellectual property rights of others. Our potential competitors may assert that some aspect of our product infringes their patents. Because patent applications may take years to issue, there also may be applications now pending of which we are unaware that may later result in issued patents upon which our products could infringe. There also may be existing patents or pending patent applications of which we are unaware upon which our products may inadvertently infringe.

Any infringement or misappropriation claim could cause us to incur significant costs, place significant strain on our financial resources, divert management’s attention from our business and harm our reputation. If the relevant patents in such claim were upheld as valid and enforceable and we were found to infringe them, we could be prohibited from selling any product that is found to infringe unless we could obtain licenses to use the technology covered by the patent or are able to design around the patent. We may be unable to obtain such a license on terms acceptable to us, if at all, and we may not be able to redesign our products to avoid infringement. A court could also order us to pay compensatory damages for such infringement, plus prejudgment interest and could, in addition, treble the compensatory damages and award attorney fees. These damages could be substantial and could harm our reputation, business, financial condition and operating results. A court also could enter orders that temporarily, preliminarily or permanently enjoin us and our customers from making, using, or selling products, and could enter an order mandating that we undertake certain remedial activities. Depending on the nature of the relief ordered by the court, we could become liable for additional damages to third parties.

The prosecution and enforcement of patents licensed to us by third parties are not within our control. Without these technologies, our product may not be successful and our business would be harmed if the patents were infringed or misappropriated without action by such third parties.

We have obtained licenses from third parties for patents and patent application rights related to the products we are developing, allowing us to use intellectual property rights owned by or licensed to these third parties. We do not control the maintenance, prosecution, enforcement or strategy for many of these patents or patent application rights and as such are dependent in part on the owners of the intellectual property rights to maintain their viability. Without access to these technologies or suitable design-around or alternative technology options, our ability to conduct our business could be impaired significantly.

We may not be successful in the implementation of our business strategy or our business strategy may not be successful, either of which will impede our development and growth.

Our business strategy involves having copyright owners agree to use our service. Our ability to implement this business strategy is dependent on our ability to:

We do not know whether we will be able to continue successfully implementing our business strategy or whether our business strategy will ultimately be successful. In assessing our ability to meet these challenges, a potential investor should take into account our limited operating history and brand recognition, our management’s relative inexperience, the competitive conditions existing in our industry and general economic conditions. Our growth is largely dependent on our ability to successfully implement our business strategy. Our revenues may be adversely affected if we fail to implement our business strategy or if we divert resources to a business that ultimately proves unsuccessful.

We have limited existing brand identity and customer loyalty; if we fail to market our brand to promote our service offerings, our business could suffer.

Because of our limited operating history, we currently do not have strong brand identity or brand loyalty. We believe that establishing and maintaining brand identity and brand loyalty is critical to attracting customers to our program. In order to attract copyright holders to our program, we may be forced to spend substantial funds to create and maintain brand recognition among consumers. We believe that the cost of our sales campaigns could increase substantially in the future. If our branding efforts are not successful, our ability to earn revenues and sustain our operations will be harmed.

Promotion and enhancement of our services will depend on our success in consistently providing high-quality services to our customers. Since we rely on technology partners to provide portions of the service to our customers, if our suppliers do not send accurate and timely data, or if our customers do not perceive the products we offer as superior, the value of the our brand could be harmed. Any brand impairment or dilution could decrease the attractiveness of our services to one or more of these groups, which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our service offerings may not be accepted.

As is typically the case involving service offerings, anticipation of demand and market acceptance are subject to a high level of uncertainty. The success of our service offerings primarily depends on the interest of copyright holders in joining our service. In general, achieving market acceptance for our services will require substantial marketing efforts and the expenditure of significant funds, the availability of which we cannot be assured, to create awareness and demand among customers. We have limited financial, personnel and other resources to undertake extensive marketing activities. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that any of our services will be accepted or with respect to our ability to generate the revenues necessary to remain in business.

A competitor with a stronger or more suitable financial position may enter our marketplace.

To our knowledge, there is currently no other company offering a copyright settlement service for P2P infringers. The success of our service offerings primarily depends on the interest of copyright holders in joining our service, as opposed to a similar service offered by a competitor. If a direct competitor arrives in our market, achieving market acceptance for our services may require additional marketing efforts and the expenditure of significant funds, the availability of which we cannot be assured, to create awareness and demand among customers. We have limited financial, personnel and other resources to undertake additional marketing activities. Accordingly, no assurance can be given that we will be able to win business from a stronger competitor.

A significant portion of our revenue is dependent upon a small number of customers and the loss of any one of these customers would negatively impact our revenues and our results of operations.

We derived approximately 77% of our revenues from a contract with one customer during the year ended December 31, 2015. For the year ended December 31, 2015, we derived approximately 90% of our revenues from contracts with two customers. We derived approximately 44% of our revenues from a contract with one customer during the year ended December 31, 2016. For the year ended December 31, 2016, we derived approximately 67% of our revenues from contracts with two customers. Our standard contract, which is entitled a Representation Agreement, with customers are for initial terms which vary in length, typically between three months and one year, and renewals are at the discretion of the parties, or in some cases renew automatically in one month increments, subject to the right of either party to terminate upon 30 days’ notice. If any of our major customers were to terminate their business relationships with us, our operating results would be materially harmed.

Our exposure to outside influences beyond our control, including new legislation or court rulings could adversely affect our enforcement activities and results of operations.

Our enforcement activities are subject to numerous risks from outside influences, including the following:

The occurrence of any one of the foregoing could significantly damage our business and results of operations.

Software defects or errors in our products could harm our reputation, result in significant costs to us and impair our ability to sell our products, which would harm our operating results.

Our products may contain undetected defects or errors when first introduced or as new versions are released, which could materially and adversely affect our reputation, result in significant costs to us and impair our ability to sell our products in the future. The costs incurred in correcting any defects or errors may be substantial and could adversely affect our operating results.

Enforcement actions against individuals may result in negative publicity which could deter customers from doing business with us.

In the past, online trademark infringement cases have garnered significant press coverage. Coverage which is sympathetic to the infringing parties or which otherwise portrays our Company in a negative light, whether or not warranted, may harm our reputation or cause our clients to have concerns about being associated with us. Such negative publicity could decrease the demand for our products and services and adversely affect our business and operating results.

Litigation may harm our business.

Substantial, complex or extended litigation could cause us to incur significant costs and distract our management. For example, lawsuits by employees, stockholders, collaborators, distributors, customers, competitors or others could be very costly and substantially disrupt our business. Disputes from time to time with such companies, organizations or individuals are not uncommon, and we cannot assure you that we will always be able to resolve such disputes or on terms favorable to us. Unexpected results could cause us to have financial exposure in these matters in excess of recorded reserves and insurance coverage, requiring us to provide additional reserves to address these liabilities, therefore impacting profits.

If we experience a significant disruption in our information technology systems or if we fail to implement new systems and software successfully, our business could be adversely affected.

We depend on information systems throughout our company to control our manufacturing processes, process orders, manage inventory, process and bill shipments and collect cash from our customers, respond to customer inquiries, contribute to our overall internal control processes, maintain records of our property, plant and equipment, and record and pay amounts due vendors and other creditors. If we were to experience a prolonged disruption in our information systems that involve interactions with customers and suppliers, it could result in the loss of sales and customers and/or increased costs, which could adversely affect our overall business operation.

Risks Related to the Securities Markets and Ownership of our Equity Securities

Our common stock is thinly traded, so shareholders may be unable to sell at or near ask prices or at all.

Our common stock has historically been sporadically traded on the OTCQB, meaning that the number of persons interested in purchasing our shares at or near ask prices at any given time may be relatively small or non-existent. This situation is attributable to a number of factors, including the fact that we are a small company which is relatively unknown to stock analysts, stock brokers, institutional investors and others in the investment community that generate or influence sales volume, and that even if we came to the attention of such persons, they tend to be risk-averse and would be reluctant to follow an unproven company such as ours or purchase or recommend the purchase of our shares until such time as we became more seasoned and viable. As a consequence, there may be periods of several days or more when trading activity in our shares is minimal or non-existent, as compared to a seasoned issuer which has a large and steady volume of trading activity that will generally support continuous sales without an adverse effect on share price. We can provide no assurance that a broader or more active public trading market for our common shares will develop or be sustained, or that current trading levels will be sustained.

The market price for the common stock is particularly volatile given our status as a relatively unknown company with a small and thinly traded public float, limited operating history and lack of revenue, which could lead to wide fluctuations in our share price.

The market for our shares of common stock is characterized by significant price volatility when compared to seasoned issuers, and we expect that our share price will continue to be more volatile than a seasoned issuer for the indefinite future. The volatility in our share price is attributable to a number of factors. First, as noted above, our shares are sporadically traded. As a consequence of this lack of liquidity, the trading of relatively small quantities of shares may disproportionately influence the price of those shares in either direction. The price for our shares could, for example, decline precipitously in the event that a large number of our shares are sold on the market without commensurate demand, as compared to a seasoned issuer which could better absorb those sales without adverse impact on its share price. Secondly, we are a speculative investment due to, among other matters, our limited operating history and lack of significant revenue or profit to date. As a consequence of this enhanced risk, more risk-averse investors may, under the fear of losing all or most of their investment in the event of negative news or lack of progress, be more inclined to sell their shares on the market more quickly and at greater discounts than would be the case with the securities of a seasoned issuer.

Our common stock is considered a “penny stock” and s hareholders should be aware that, according to SEC Release No. 34-29093, the market for penny stocks has suffered in recent years from patterns of fraud and abuse. Such patterns include (1) control of the market for the security by one or a few broker-dealers that are often related to the promoter or issuer; (2) manipulation of prices through prearranged matching of purchases and sales and false and misleading press releases; (3) boiler room practices involving high-pressure sales tactics and unrealistic price projections by inexperienced sales persons; (4) excessive and undisclosed bid-ask differential and markups by selling broker-dealers; and (5) the wholesale dumping of the same securities by promoters and broker-dealers after prices have been manipulated to a desired level, along with the resulting inevitable collapse of those prices and with consequent investor losses. Our management is aware of the abuses that have occurred historically in the penny stock market. Although we do not expect to be in a position to dictate the behavior of the market or of broker-dealers who participate in the market, management will strive within the confines of practical limitations to prevent the described patterns from being established with respect to our securities. The occurrence of these patterns or practices could increase the volatility of our share price.

Because we became public by means of a reverse acquisition, we may not be able to attract the attention of brokerage firms.

Because we became public through a “reverse acquisition”, securities analysts of brokerage firms may not provide coverage of us since there is little incentive to brokerage firms to recommend the purchase of our common stock.

Our issuance of common stock upon exercise of warrants may depress the price of our common stock.

As of March 14, 2017, there were outstanding presently exercisable warrants entitling the holders to purchase 45,310,140 shares of common stock at a weighted average exercise price of $0.09 per share. The issuance of shares of common stock upon exercise of outstanding warrants, could result in substantial dilution to our stockholders, which may have a negative effect on the price of our common stock.

Our issuance of additional shares of common stock, or options or warrants to purchase those shares, would dilute your proportionate ownership and voting rights.

We are entitled under our articles of incorporation to issue up to 250,000,000 shares of common stock. We have issued and outstanding, as of March 28, 2017, 132,463,171 shares of common stock. In addition, we are entitled under our articles of incorporation to issue up to 10,000,000 shares of “blank check” preferred stock, none of which is presently issued or outstanding. Our board may generally issue shares of common stock, preferred stock or options or warrants to purchase those shares, without further approval by our shareholders based upon such factors as our board of directors may deem relevant at that time. It is likely that we will be required to issue a large amount of additional securities to raise capital to further our development. It is also likely that we will issue a large amount of additional securities to directors, officers, employees and consultants as compensatory grants in connection with their services. Such issuances would result in dilution to our stockholders, which may have a negative effect on the price of our common stock.

The elimination of monetary liability against our directors, officers and employees under our Articles of Incorporation and the existence of indemnification rights to our directors, officers and employees may result in substantial expenditures by our company and may discourage lawsuits against our directors, officers and employees.

Our Articles of Incorporation contains provisions that eliminate the liability of our directors for monetary damages to our company and shareholders. Our bylaws also require us to indemnify our officers and directors. We may also have contractual indemnification obligations under our agreements with our directors, officers and employees. The foregoing indemnification obligations could result in our company incurring substantial expenditures to cover the cost of settlement or damage awards against directors, officers and employees that we may be unable to recoup. These provisions and resultant costs may also discourage our company from bringing a lawsuit against directors, officers and employees for breaches of their fiduciary duties, and may similarly discourage the filing of derivative litigation by our shareholders against our directors, officers and employees even though such actions, if successful, might otherwise benefit our company and shareholders.

Anti-takeover provisions may impede the acquisition of our company.

Certain provisions of the Nevada Revised Statutes have anti-takeover effects and may inhibit a non-negotiated merger or other business combination. These provisions are intended to encourage any person interested in acquiring us to negotiate with, and to obtain the approval of, our board of directors in connection with such a transaction. However, certain of these provisions may discourage a future acquisition of us, including an acquisition in which the shareholders might otherwise receive a premium for their shares. As a result, shareholders who might desire to participate in such a transaction may not have the opportunity to do so.

If we fail to comply with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 our business could be harmed and our stock price could decline.

Rules adopted by the SEC pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 require an annual assessment of our internal control over financial reporting. Accordingly, we are subject to the rules requiring an annual assessment of our internal controls. The standards that must be met for management to assess the internal control over financial reporting as effective are complex, and require significant documentation, testing and possible remediation to meet the detailed standards. In addition, in the event we are no longer a smaller reporting company, the independent registered public accounting firm auditing our financial statements would be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting. If we are unable to conclude that we have effective internal control over financial reporting or if our independent registered public accounting firm is required to, but is unable to provide us with a report as to the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting, investors could lose confidence in the reliability of our financial statements, which could result in a decrease in the value of our securities.

We may become involved in securities class action litigation that could divert management’s attention and harm our business.

The stock market in general, and the shares of early stage companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations. These fluctuations have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of the companies involved. If these fluctuations occur in the future, the market price of our shares could fall regardless of our operating performance. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been brought against that company. If the market price or volume of our shares suffers extreme fluctuations, then we may become involved in this type of litigation, which would be expensive and divert management’s attention and resources from managing our business.

As a public company, we may also from time to time make forward-looking statements about future operating results and provide some financial guidance to the public markets. Our management has limited experience as a management team in a public company and as a result projections may not be made timely or set at expected performance levels and could materially affect the price of our shares. Any failure to meet published forward-looking statements that adversely affect the stock price could result in losses to investors, stockholder lawsuits or other litigation, sanctions or restrictions issued by the SEC.

Our common stock is currently deemed a “penny stock,” which makes it more difficult for our investors to sell their shares.

The SEC has adopted Rule 15g-9 which establishes the definition of a “penny stock,” for the purposes relevant to us, as any equity security that has a market price of less than $5.00 per share, subject to certain exceptions. For any transaction involving a penny stock, unless exempt, the rules require that a broker or dealer approve a person’s account for transactions in penny stocks, and the broker or dealer receive from the investor a written agreement to the transaction, setting forth the identity and quantity of the penny stock to be purchased.

In order to approve a person’s account for transactions in penny stocks, the broker or dealer must obtain financial information and investment experience objectives of the person, and make a reasonable determination that the transactions in penny stocks are suitable for that person and the person has sufficient knowledge and experience in financial matters to be capable of evaluating the risks of transactions in penny stocks.

The broker or dealer must also deliver, prior to any transaction in a penny stock, a disclosure schedule prescribed by the SEC relating to the penny stock market, which, in highlight form sets forth the basis on which the broker or dealer made the suitability determination, and that the broker or dealer received a signed, written agreement from the investor prior to the transaction.

Generally, brokers may be less willing to execute transactions in securities subject to the “penny stock” rules. This may make it more difficult for investors to dispose of our common stock if and when such shares are eligible for sale and may cause a decline in the market value of its stock.

As an issuer of “penny stock,” the protection provided by the federal securities laws relating to forward-looking statements does not apply to us .

Although federal securities laws provide a safe harbor for forward-looking statements made by a public company that files reports under the federal securities laws, this safe harbor is not available to issuers of penny stocks. As a result, we will not have the benefit of this safe harbor protection in the event of any legal action based upon a claim that the material provided by us contained a material misstatement of fact or was misleading in any material respect because of our failure to include any statements necessary to make the statements not misleading. Such an action could hurt our financial condition.

We have not paid cash dividends in the past and do not expect to pay cash dividends in the foreseeable future.

We have never paid cash dividends on our capital stock and do not anticipate paying cash dividends on our capital stock in the foreseeable future. The payment of dividends on our capital stock will depend on our earnings, financial condition and other business and economic factors affecting us at such time as the board of directors may consider relevant. If we do not pay dividends, our common stock may be less valuable because a return on a shareholder’s investment will only occur if the common stock price appreciates.