REFR Research Frontiers Inc

RISK FACTORS

In addition to the other information in this prospectus, you should carefully consider the following factors in evaluating us and our business before purchasing the shares of common stock offered hereby. This prospectus contains, in addition to historical information, forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond our control. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, our actual results could differ materially. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed below, as well as those discussed elsewhere in this prospectus, including the documents incorporated by reference.

There are risks associated with investing in companies such as ours who are engaged in research and development. Because of these risks, you should only invest if you are able to bear the risk of losing your entire investment. Before investing, in addition to risks which could apply to any issuer or offering, you should also consider the business we are in and the following:

Source and Need for Capital.

As of December 31, 2017, we had approximately $1.7 million in cash and cash equivalents. In February 2018, a small group of long-time shareholders of the Company made an interest-free five-year loan of $1.25 million to the Company which, upon the occurrence of certain conditions, is expected to convert into common stock at a price equal to the market price of the Company’s common stock when the loan was made, plus warrants exercisable at a premium to such market price. No payments are due on this note during its five-year term.

As we take steps in the commercialization and marketing of our technology, or respond to potential opportunities and/or adverse events, our working capital needs may change. We anticipate that if our cash and cash equivalents are insufficient to satisfy our liquidity requirements, we will require additional funding to sustain our ongoing operations and to continue our SPD technology research and development activities.

We have funded most of our activities through sales of our common stock to investors, and upon the exercise of options and warrants. Eventual success of the Company and generation of positive cash flow will be dependent upon the extent of commercialization of products using the Company’s technology by the Company’s licensees and payments of continuing royalties on account thereof. We can give no assurances that we will generate sufficient revenues in the future (through sales of our common stock, exercise of options and warrants, royalty fees, or otherwise) to satisfy our liquidity requirements or sustain future operations, or that additional funding, if required, will be available when needed or, if available, on favorable terms.

History of Operating Losses.

We have experienced net losses from operations, and we may continue to incur net losses from operations in the future. We have incurred substantial costs and expenses in researching and developing our SPD technology. As of December 31, 2017, we had a cumulative net loss of $109,062,827 since our inception. Our net loss was $2,413,859 in 2017, $4,238,410 in 2016 and $4,279,856 in 2015, (which includes non-cash accounting charge in 2017, 2016 and 2015 of $76,299, $67,531 and $725,016 respectively, resulting from the expensing of grants of restricted stock and stock options).

We may not generate sufficient cash flows to cover our operating expenses.

As noted above, we have incurred recurring losses since inception and expect to continue to incur losses as a result of costs and expenses related to our research and continued development of our SPD technology and our corporate general and administrative expenses. Our limited capital resources and operations to date have been substantially funded through sales of our common stock, exercise of options and warrants and royalty fees collected. As of December 31, 2017, we had working capital of approximately $2.1 million, cash and cash equivalents of approximately $1.7 million, shareholders’ equity of approximately $2.6 million and an accumulated deficit of approximately $109.1 million. In the event that we are unable to generate sufficient cash from our operating activities or raise additional funds, we may be required to delay, reduce or severely curtail our operations or otherwise impede our on-going business efforts, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, financial condition and long-term prospects.

We have never declared a cash dividend and do not intend to declare a cash dividend in the foreseeable future.

We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our common stock. Payment of dividends on our common stock is within the discretion of our Board of Directors and will depend upon our future earnings, capital requirements, financial condition and other relevant factors. We do not anticipate declaring or paying any cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future.

We do not directly manufacture products using SPD technology. We currently depend upon the activities of our licensees and their customers in order to be profitable.

We do not directly manufacture products using SPD technology. We currently depend upon the activities of our licensees in order to be profitable. Although a variety of products have been sold by our licensees, and because it is up to our licensees to decide when and if they will introduce products using SPD technology, we cannot predict when and if our licensees will generate substantial sales of such products. Our SPD technology is currently licensed to over 40 companies. Other companies are also evaluating SPD technology for use in various products. In the past, some companies have evaluated our technology without proceeding further. While we expect that our licensees would be primarily responsible for manufacturing and marketing SPD-Smart products and components, we are also engaging in market development activities to support our licensees and build the smart glass industry. We cannot control whether or not our licensees will develop SPD products. Some of our licensees appear to be more active than others, some appear to be better capitalized than others, and some licensees appear to be inactive. There is no guarantee when or if our licensees will successfully produce any commercial product using SPD technology in sufficient quantities to make the Company profitable.

SPD-Smart products have only recently been introduced.

Products using SPD technology have only recently begun to be introduced into the marketplace. Developing products using new technologies can be risky because problems, expenses and delays frequently occur, and costs may or may not come down quickly enough for such products using new technologies to rapidly penetrate mass market applications.

SPD-Smart products face intense competition, which could affect our ability to increase our revenues.

The market for SPD-Smart products is intensely competitive and we expect competition to increase in the future. We compete based on the functionality and the quality of our product. Many of our current and potential competitors have significantly greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources than we have. In addition, many of our competitors have well-established relationships with our current and potential customers and have extensive knowledge of our industry. If our competitors develop new technologies or new products, improve the functionality or quality of their current products, or reduce their prices, and if we are unable to respond to such competitive developments quickly either because our research and development efforts do not keep pace with our competitors or because of our lack of financial resources, we may be unable to compete effectively.

Declining production of automobiles, airplanes, boats and real estate could harm our business.

Our licensees’ commercialization efforts of SPD-Smart products could be negatively impacted if the global production of automobiles, airplanes, boats and real estate construction declines significantly. If such commercialization is reduced, our revenues, results of operations and financial condition could be negatively impacted.

Single source of SPD film.

Our end-product licensees require a source of SPD film to manufacture finished products. Currently, Hitachi Chemical is the sole source of commercial quantities of SPD-film. There are several other companies that are licensed to manufacture SPD-film, but they have not begun commercial production of this film. Our end-product licensees’ ability to sell SPD products could be negatively impacted if there was a prolonged disruption in SPD-film availability. Such a disruption could also negatively impact our revenues, results of operations and financial condition.

We are dependent on key personnel.

Our continued success will depend, to a significant extent, on the services of our directors, executive management team, key personnel and certain key scientists. If one or more of these individuals were to leave the Company, there is no guarantee that we could replace them with qualified individuals in a timely or economically satisfactory manner or at all. The loss or unavailability of any or all of these individuals could harm our ability to execute our business plan, maintain important business relationships and complete certain product development initiatives, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial conditions.

Dependence on SPD-Smart technology.

Because SPD technology is the only technology we work with, our success depends upon the viability of SPD technology which has yet to be fully proven. We have not fully ascertained the performance and long-term reliability of our technology, and therefore there is no guarantee that our technology will successfully be incorporated into all of the products which we are targeting for use of SPD technology. We expect that different product applications for SPD technology will have different performance and reliability specifications. We expect that our licensees will primarily be responsible for reliability testing, but that we may also continue to do reliability testing so that we can more effectively focus our research and development efforts towards constantly improving the performance characteristics and reliability of products using SPD technology.

Our patents and other protective measures may not adequately protect our proprietary intellectual property, and we may be infringing on the rights of others.

Our intellectual property, particularly our proprietary rights in our SPD technology, is critical to our success. We have received various patents, and filed other patent applications, for various applications and aspects of our SPD technology. In addition, we generally enter into confidentiality and invention agreements with our employees and consultants. Such patents and agreements and various other measures we take to protect our intellectual property from use by others may not be effective for various reasons generally applicable to patents and their granting and enforcement. In addition, the costs associated with enforcing patents, confidentiality and invention agreements or other intellectual property rights may be expensive. Our inability to protect our proprietary intellectual property rights or gain a competitive advantage from such rights could harm our ability to generate revenues and, as a result, our business and operations.

An unremediated material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting could adversely affect our reputation, business or stock price.

We previously identified a control deficiency constituting a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting related to our controls over the determination of our allowance for doubtful accounts in 2016. We developed and implemented a plan to remediate this material weakness and based on our evaluation have concluded that this material weakness has been remediated during 2017.

We have broad discretion in the use of the proceeds of this offering.

All of our net proceeds from this offering will be used, as determined by management in its sole discretion, for working capital and other general corporate purposes. Our management will have broad discretion over the use and investment of the net proceeds of this offering and there is no assurance that management’s chosen application of proceeds will yield intended results. You will not have the opportunity, as part of your investment decision, to assess whether our proceeds are being used appropriately. Pending application of our proceeds, they might be placed in investments that do not produce income or that lose value.

Future sales of our securities could cause our stock price to decline.

If we or our stockholders sell substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market, the market price of our common stock could decrease. The perception in the public market that we or our stockholders might sell shares of our common stock could also depress the market price of our common stock. A decline in the price of shares of our common stock might impede our ability to raise capital through the issuance of additional shares of our common stock or other equity securities.

Our common stock has historically experienced low trading volume.

Our common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market and has historically experienced low trading volume and there is no assurance that the increased trading volume will continue or be maintained. Reported average daily trading volume in our common stock for 2017 was approximately 53,644 shares. Limited trading volume subjects our common stock to greater price volatility and may make it difficult for you to sell your shares at a particular price.

Our ability to use net operating loss carryforwards might be limited.

At December 31, 2017, we had a net operating loss carryforward for federal income tax purposes of $73 million, varying amounts of which will expire in each year from 2018 through 2037. To the extent these net operating loss carryforwards are available, we intend to use them to reduce any corporate income tax liability associated with our operations we might have in the future. Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code generally imposes an annual limitation on the amount of net operating loss carryforwards that might be used to offset taxable income when a corporation has undergone significant changes in stock ownership. As a result, prior or future changes in ownership could put limitations on the availability of our net operating loss carryforwards. In addition, our ability to utilize the current net operating loss carryforwards might be further limited by the issuance of securities in this offering or future offerings. To the extent our use of our net operating loss carryforwards or tax losses is limited, our income could be subject to corporate income tax earlier than it would if we were able to use net operating loss carryforwards, which could result in lower profits.

Our organizational documents, stockholders’ rights plan and Delaware law make a takeover of our company more difficult, which may prevent certain changes in control and limit the market price of our common stock.

Our certificate of incorporation, bylaws, stockholders’ rights plan and Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law contain provisions that may have the effect of deterring or delaying attempts by our stockholders to remove or replace management, engage in proxy contests and effect changes in control. These provisions of our certificate of incorporation and bylaws include:

We also have adopted a stockholders’ rights plan designed to deter stockholders from acquiring shares of stock in excess of 15%. In addition, as a Delaware corporation, we are subject to Delaware law, including Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law. In general, Section 203 prohibits a Delaware corporation from engaging in any business combination with any interested stockholder for a period of three years following the date that the stockholder became an interested stockholder unless certain specific requirements are met as set forth in Section 203.

These provisions could discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for you and other stockholders to elect directors, replace incumbent management and take other corporate actions. Some provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws may deter third parties from acquiring us, which may limit the market price of our common stock or prevent us from consummating a proposed transaction that our stockholders find to be in their best interests.