Research and Development, Patents, and Licenses, etc.
Research and Development
Our research and development efforts focus on developing and improving the scalability, features, and functionality of our SaaS services, including the compilation and use of data to increase automation of our services and enhance the customer experience. We have a large team of 348 engineers and developers as of March 31, 2023, accounting for 59% of our employees. Most of our engineers and developers are based at our subsidiary’s office in Beijing, China. We also have engineers in the Philippines, Pakistan, and Eastern Europe.
Our research and development personnel support all areas of our business, mainly focusing on the improvement and enhancement of our SaaS businesses, Chime and Trucker Path. Our research and development personnel also focus on enhancing the user experience through commonly used user interfaces, including mobile apps, and ensuring our products are fully compatible with the latest mobile operating systems such as iOS, Android, and Windows. In 2023, with the acquisition of Rentancy by Chime, we expect to increasingly invest in developing Chime products to serve property managers and landlords. We periodically shift the priorities of our research and development personnel to ensure we continually develop new products and services to extend our customer reach and meet the needs of our user base.
Our research and development expenses primarily include salaries and benefits for our research and development personnel. We incurred US$3.6 million and US$4.9 million of research and development expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2023, respectively.
Intellectual Property
Our intellectual property includes trademarks and trademark applications related to our brands and services, copyrights in software, trade secrets, patent applications and other intellectual property rights and licenses. We seek to protect our intellectual property assets and brand through a combination of monitoring and enforcement of trademark, patent, copyright and trade secret protection laws in the US, PRC, and other jurisdictions, as well as through confidentiality agreements and procedures.
We have been granted 11 patents. In addition, we maintain 32 copyright registrations, all of which are computer software copyright registrations as of March 31, 2023. Our employees sign confidentiality and non-compete agreements when hired.
Trend Information
Other than as disclosed elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, we are not aware of any trends, uncertainties, demands, commitments or events for the three months ended March 31, 2023 that are reasonably likely to have a material adverse effect on our revenues, income, profitability, liquidity or capital resources, or that would cause the disclosed financial information to be not necessarily indicative of future operating results or financial conditions.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Refer to Part II, Item 7, "Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates" of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022. There have been no material changes to our Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates disclosed therein.
ITEM 3. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
As a smaller reporting company, we are not required to provide information typically disclosed under this item.