Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Research Frontiers Investor Conference Call to discuss the Third Quarter of 2024 Results of Operations and Recent Developments [Operator Instructions]. This conference is being recorded today. A replay of this conference call will be available starting later today in the Investors section of Research Frontiers' website at www.smartglass.com and will be available for replay for the next 90 days. Please note that some of the comments made today may contain forward-looking information. The words expect, anticipate, plans, forecasts and similar expressions are intended to identify forward looking statements. Statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to applicable safe harbor provisions. These statements reflect the company's current beliefs, any number of important factors that could cause actual results for future periods to differ materially from those expressed. Significant factors that could cause results to differ from those anticipated are described in our filings with the SEC. Research Frontiers undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements to reflect new events or uncertainties. The company will be answering many of the questions that were e-mailed to it prior to this conference call either in the presentation or as part of the Q&A session at the end. In some cases, the company has responded directly to e-mail questions prior to this call or will do so afterwards in order to answer more questions of general interest to shareholders on this call [Operator Instructions]. Also, we ask that you keep your questions brief in the interest of time. I'll now turn the call over to Joe Harary, President and Chief Executive Officer of Research Frontiers. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Erika. And hello, everyone. And welcome to our third quarter of 2024 investor conference call. As we anticipated in previous calls, based upon the leading indicators that we typically look at, we saw strong momentum this quarter. Compared to Q3 last year, Royalty income grew over 115%, fueled by triple digit growth in our two largest markets, the automotive and aircraft markets. For the first nine months of this year, royalty income rose by over 93% compared to the same period last year. This was driven by double digit percentage growth in the aircraft and architectural markets and triple digit percentage growth in our largest market, the automotive market. In fact, we are on track to almost double the number of roofs sold to Ferrari and triple the number of roofs sold to McLaren compared to last year. This marks our seventh consecutive quarter of revenue growth. And looking ahead, we expect to finish the year with double digit revenue growth over last year. In fact, as of the end of the third quarter of this year, we have already surpassed revenues for all of last year. Our expenses were down by $92,000 this quarter alone and by over $150,000 over the nine months. With higher revenues and lower expenses, our quarterly net loss is one third of last year and for the full nine months is about half, translating to $0.00 on or almost breakeven per share for the quarter and $0.02 per share for the full nine months. Barring strategic reasons, we do not anticipate needing additional capital in the near term. We remain debt free with over $1.65 million in cash and stable working capital deficient for more than five years of operations. Now let's break down these results by market so we can all…

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Alan Ginsberg.

I have two questions, both comments on your prepared remarks. I just -- I was curious, the Saudi study, which sounds very positive. Did you have -- was there a press release on that?

No. We didn't do a press release on that. It's part of our white papers and it's part of our data that we discussed with architects. And what's really good about this also is that for the first time, it's giving some meaningful targets for optimum daylighting and tint levels in -- which are all different between skylights, atrium, clerestory windows, classrooms and other things. So it really is giving some really practical data. And if you think about the challenges of achieving variable tint, I mean, right now, if you didn't have SPD-SmartGlass, you're not going to get any change or lighting change with PDLC. So you throw that out and you're going to have a 40-minute or more delay with electrotromics. And then if you're putting shades or blinds or curtains, they work, they're cumbersome…

No, I agree and I thought that, because it's so compelling that a press release would be a good thing for the shareholders to see. It certainly would for me.

We might do that and it's not a bad idea, and I go have to discuss that with Gauzy to see if there are any restrictions placed on the public use of that.

I have one other question, again, on your prepared remarks, on the intellectual property. Is it possible to give you -- to give us some updates on the patents, how long they are in effect and if there are any new patents, that type of thing?

We always have new innovations coming online, some are patented, some aren't. I believe our existing patents at least go through 2034 and perhaps beyond, depending on when the one's issue. We have about 250 patents worldwide. So it's quite an extensive patent portfolio. And yes, we have some pretty exciting stuff coming, some of which people would consider the Holy Grail of our industry. But I don't want to promise timing or announce it until it's ready for pronto.

And those types of Holy Grail patents, if they do come about, will they be in your SEC filings, that type of thing?

Yes. To the extent material, they will always -- we have an obligation to disclose material information. So yes. And from a marketing standpoint -- yes, from a marketing standpoint, the Holy Grail stuff is meant to generate ever increasing levels of sales, especially in some of the newer applications that we're posting.

Well, I can make my guess with that is, but that's just a guess. So I appreciate all the information.

Our next question comes from Michael Kay.

I have a few kind of lightning round questions and it will be very short.

Let me give you the answers. Yes, no, maybe yes. How is that?

Is Gauzy the only company that's making SPD film and do they plan to have a plant in the United States?

You can ask the question about their future plans on their conference call next week. However, they are the only company, they bought the Showa Denko business from them. So right now, Gauzy has the supply advantage here. They don't have an exclusive license but right now they're the only ones, and they're doing a great job. When you see companies like Ferrari tell you that they want to put this in more and more cars and it's such a successful item, it speaks volumes of that. And we've been very blessed to have them as partners.

And also, when will the sun visors be available that could be retrofitted to existing automobiles?

We have multiple approaches to getting that into the market. Some are very near term and some are more intermediate and longer term. The intermediate to longer term ones, and we're not talking about great periods of time, are incorporating it into the shade band of the windshield. So if you look on any car, there's something called the AS line. And from a regulatory standpoint, you could do anything you want tint wise on the windshield above the AS line. So sometimes you'll see a blue band across the car, that's usually the shape band and you could do what you want there. And then there's the one where you could either have the full down visor, traditional visor but have the SPD functionality or you can have other iterations where it’s an aftermarket or semi afmarket item?

But was the goal set in terms of when they'd be available to the public?

Goals are always set and expectations are always set within the companies that are producing this. They're not things I could share.

Yes, it's been a long time. Also, do you -- is Mercedes still involved in any way with the SPD…

We have an involvement and so does Gauzy with Mercedes. And I think that a lot of the things that are on their wish list are things that we're going to be able to deliver. And when they see all of their other premium cars putting SPD on it, it just makes them realize that they had the first dance at the prom with the prettiest girl and maybe they should keep dancing.

Do you anticipate, even though it's lagging behind that eventually the architectural market will be the largest for SPD even surpassing autos and aircraft?

I think so. And I think the drivers of that is the constant reduction in the price of the film, the retrofit application and what that really does. I mean I'll just give you one example of how it can grow very, very fast. The GSA, the Government Services Administration is the buyer of materials for the government. Our licensee that has the patents on the retrofit application is on the GSA schedule of approved vendors and they currently supply them with different types of advanced glass for the GSA to pick from and it comes on a menu. So just like you go to a restaurant, you could order a retrofit window with X, Y or Z type of glass and that Z type of glass would be SPD. So we're kind of already very much with our foot -- it's not our toe in the door, it's probably our entire foot and maybe or torso and three friends helping to probably open the door. So -- and that's the biggest customer in the world. So that's one area where if you wanted to see stellar growth that could happen. And just we were discussing some of the projections they could be astronomical for us and our licensees even in year one of that. So something that I expect to be bigger. And then you have the more traditional ways of installing the glass and more traditional new construction and things like that. And that also is big because basically almost 70% of the world's glass is going through the architectural market [Multiple Speakers]…

And the final question, even though you once said that the sweet spot in terms of cost and attractiveness to the car manufacturers had been reached. I assume the company is still trying to reduce the cost of SPD, so it will even have [Multiple Speakers]…

Yes, all the time. So there's two things you want to do. You want to decrease the cost of the materials that are going to the customer and you want to decrease the cost of ownership by constantly making it better, more versatile, more durable, et cetera. So we're constantly doing that. And just simple basic economies of scale because remember, we're a roll-to-roll web pressed process of production. We're not a sputter coated vacuum deposition process that doesn't really have economy of scale as view is painfully aware of. So our yields are high, the efficiencies of production are high. The logistics are great because you could ship film anywhere you want in the world and then have it laminated relatively locally. So you don't have to shift fragile, heavy expensive glass around the world, you can throw a couple of roles of film on a car freight and get it there the next day without any real meaningful shipment costs. So these are the things that really, I think, are the hallmark. And then I talked about another one today, which is the reduction in the cost of delivery through things like the retrofit application where you don't have to have scaffolding put up. You don't have to even have maybe electricians come to the site. So a lot of benefits there.

Our next question comes from Leonard Lietzow.

I noticed [Multiple Speakers] Gauzy's original S-1 report, they said that they had sold out all of their manufacturing, they had contracts on it all for the year. And apparently, a lot of things got pushed off from the third quarter to the fourth quarter. Is that what happened?

Yes. Most of that, that they reported in their most recent revenue guidance was related to their production of the end products for aircraft in their in their French facility. And if you noticed the lead on that was that they got permission from the union to add a shift. So those kind of things don't really -- those problems don't really exist in all parts of the world. But in some areas, it's harder to get unions degree to do things. Happy to say also that the union issue with some of the architectural applications is zero to nonexistent because of the nature of it.

Those are both positive things?

Very much so. And the other thing to keep in mind, Len, is that part of this was because of the war. And sometimes, good decisions come out of bad situations. When they went public, I'm sure they got more than their fair share of question about what happens if something happens to their Yafo Tel Aviv facility. So they started expanding even before this, because their planners emulsion production outside of Israel. But when that happened, they stepped up that process. So expanding emulsion and film production capability was something that very much was in the works. And I will say that in the automotive market, I mean, you see these very stellar growth rates that have been consistently high, this year they've been asked to exceed what their requirements were for that for certain customers and they've done it. They stepped up to the plate and they got it done. So neither them or us or companies that like to turn down good business.

Which means that the fourth quarter should be pretty exciting?

I think every quarter going forward is going to be exciting. And well, let me leave it at that.

Our next question comes from John Nelson.

Joe, I have a couple of questions just related to the comments made earlier. The Saudi study, related to the Saudi study, they are constructing a giant new city in the desert. Is this -- will this study help to market SPD to -- for potential use there?

I think it will. I think that if you consider the whole Saudi Arabian market, they've built remarkable buildings there and most of them use glass and glass is very good and very bad in the desert. Very good that it withstands a lot of abuse but it's very bad and that it brings in a lot of heat, light and glare. So being able to control it becomes even more important. And if you look at the study, they were talking about schools but the study really has applicability on any place that glass is used in a building, whether it's an atrium, which they have plenty of, skylights, conference rooms, entrance ways, everything like that. And what's really good about it is I think that they've now put some traction underneath what the target should be for designing those buildings, which is very good. And if you have a choice of several ways of achieving those tint targets, well, one is the old fashioned way. If you need 30% tint, you put glass with a 30% tint and it doesn't switch, which means many times during the day is wrong, because the sun has moved or you have part to shade areas like a glass atrium. I mean imagine trying to put a skylight shade 50 feet in the air, it's very hard to do or you could have the glass to it. So I think it's really going to be a layup, not only in Saudi Arabia but pretty much anywhere that people are either building corporate headquarters or museums or very high profile installations. And the city would be great when it happens. And one other thing. I think this is maybe a testament to the importance of the retrofit. So I was born in West…

That kind of -- just kind of an add-on question to that is, are you -- what else are you -- what else are you doing to increase the awareness of the product and its capabilities?

One thing is being on a plane whenever you can, because this is a very visual technology that if you see it and press the button, you're hooked. And I think anybody that's had the opportunity to press an SPD-SmartGlass window will always remember that feeling and it doesn't wear off for me almost 40 years later. So it's that that becomes demonstrable. And also coordinating with these ever expanding marketing departments and business development partners and our licensees. And I'll talk a little bit more about that in my closing remarks. But yes, the marketing is something that's becoming a lot of fun now that we have architectural with film and iconic brands that are using this and visibility.

And on the new models mentioned for 2025 introduction. Have they decided yet?

Thank you for picking up on its models, plural and 2025.

Have they decided yet whether it's going to be an option or standard on certain of those models?

In some cases, I think it may be standard. In some cases, it's going to be entirely new uses of SPD, I believe. So it's going to be kind of exciting because it has the ability to really open up new thinking about SPD. It's not just for sun roofs anymore.

And then you mentioned LTI and getting specs on several projects. Without disclosing names, can you describe the types of buildings that these projects are involved?

Well, I'll do my best without compromising the fact that we are competing against some of our -- the electrochromic glass people on it. But I think we're going to do fine, because the data is just so compelling, why you would do this. But they're commercial, not residential. They are big users of glass and sophisticated building management systems need sophisticated glass and shading systems, and we check all the boxes. So that's about all I could say right now. And then on the government side, we've identified a number of projects that the government would like to upgrade. And that's good because when you think about government buildings, first of all, you have the GSA mandate to make their buildings more energy efficient. And this has been around for not just the current administration but the prior administration that and you have these mandates to do this. Because some of these buildings have just very old monolithic, not even insulated glass unit, glass structures. And to upgrade them with the latest and greatest, especially with the retrofit becomes a no-brainer. And what you can do is basically test it out. So you may have a certain corner of the building that has a particularly bad glare problem. You put it there first and then you basically expand to other windows on the floor and other floors in the building and other buildings in the area to do this once you've kind of proven it out. So it's a way for the government to really get some real good firm data as to how and why and where to deploy this glass. And the thing I must say also is to be remarkable is you could come in over the course of a weekend and do lots of windows. So you're not really taking the building out of service or disrupting the flow of the building in order to upgrade it to smart glass using the retrofit. So it's a very, very compelling area. And our licensee in that area, LTI is expanding to do that.

Last question. Now that the Boeing strike is settled, are you -- is SPD either certified or ordered on any of their models?

Yes. Yesterday at the Benzinga interview that's online, Eyal Peso said this, so I guess I could say it too. The two airlines have done this.

Our next question comes from Art Brady.

About three weeks ago, Hitachi mentioned that they are expanding into the building of new data centers. And I'm wondering if any of this has come across your desk?

Well, you got to look at which division of Hitachi did that. Hitachi is like General Electric. Hitachi Chemical, which was sold to Showa Denko, which has now been named Resonac is a different division. And I'm not really sure these data centers would be ideal places for this, because they typically don't have windows. So I'm not sure why they would put it there. But look, I've been wrong about many things, I could be wrong about that, too.

What they're trying to do is to build these data centers in areas where there are very strong amounts of oil fields, so that they could generate power very readily.

Right. But the thing to think about Art is whether the building itself needs SPD if it doesn't have any windows. And I think that, for the most part, if you're building a data center, you're going to probably want to make it like a bomb shelter, which means no windows, very thick concrete and other things. So we'll see. But I don't think it's the low hanging fruit at least.

Another question I have is you used to have -- where we had meetings. And as you walked into the meeting, you had a couple of Lincoln cars that had SPD. And then anything happened with Lincoln that we can hook up with them again?

Well, we keep good contact with the whole Ford organization, and I've been there many, many times even since the Lincoln Continental came out in concept with our stuff. So you keep in contact with everyone. You work with everyone. You try to understand their needs and then you figure out the best licensees to help them achieve those needs, and that's pretty simple but straightforward approach to all the automakers.

Next question comes from Michael Foster.

In light of this, what sounds like a very rosy picture about sales and I'm reminding of what you told us when Gauzy was added as a film supplier that was a great development, because OEMs like to have more than one supplier. So what has been done to add SPD film producers beyond Gauzy?

So there's a balance, Michael, between having too many film suppliers and having the ones that you have, have every incentive to invest in innovation, quality assurance and everything like that. Otherwise, we become like PDLC, which is a very spotty technology in many areas, not at Gauzy. They do a great PDLC product, which is what we love about them is if they have the same commitment to quality we do. It has not been a consideration by any of the carmakers that we're dealing with. Not one of them has mentioned that as an issue anymore. I think they're comfortable with the fact that, A, they've done site audits of Gauzy, they know their production facility, they know their capacity. There's not going to be a capacity constraint if Ford or GM decided to put this on every car being able to produce enough film for that. And they also know that if there was and if Gauzy didn't make the necessary investments to continue to replicate capability like they've been doing throughout the world, we could always license new companies to do this. So that hasn't been an area where -- but the other part of your question, I think, is on the end product side, we find that the glass laminators are the ones that the carmakers focus on having redundancy on and -- because they're the ones that are buying the film and pricing it and selling it to the automakers. And there, we have very good redundancy across multiple suppliers for the automakers. So they like that. And some of our discussions recently have been making sure that we always preserve it on the end product side.

Well, I wasn't being critical of Gauzy they seem to be…

I don't think you were. I just think it's a good question.

[Multiple Speakers] volume if we have this great opportunity to sell product, it sounds like we would benefit from having somebody else who's producing film just so that there is an adequate supply. And that's why I'm asking what has been done to add film producers.

Discussions specifically about capacity expansion plans and also the ability to talk to other licensees prospective licensees to make film. I can't say more about. I can't say any more about it, it's strategic and this is an open call. So -- but it hasn't been a factor in terms of capacity. I've looked at Gauzy's expansion plans, they could make as much film as we think is going to be needed and they have every intention of doing that.

Our next question comes from Chuck Michaels.

Joe, I’ve got a few questions. First one actually isn’t even a question so much as I read an article that indicated that I was not aware of this previously that flight attendants actually have health issues from the light that comes in for the airplanes is like on commercial aircraft. And I was thinking that possibly that might be something to check into in terms of marketing SPD.

Right, and that's similar to what we call truckers arm. If you look at the left arm of most truckers, they have a higher incidence of skin cancer because their elbows are sitting right next to the glass or out the window. And we've blocked so much UV but there's certainly a health benefit there. The other thing that is a little bit crazy is the restrictions that the flight attendant unions placed on their flight attendants that are not necessarily in the flight attendants’ best interest. They can't require them to open and close windows, for example. So you noticed sometimes when you land they'll make an announcement, voluntarily, please close your window. We're flying into Miami International or whatever other hot climate you’re in but they can't require the -- and that would be much better for the passengers and for the flight attendants. But yes, the health issues are things that we're very cognizant of. And we've had discussions about why this would be good for health.

Another thing was I sent a question about it, I don't know if you covered. I got in about 5 minutes late on the conference call. But I was wondering with Gauzy had a press release about this car vision camera system. And I was wondering if that used your technology or not.

It doesn't. The smart light, which is the safety tech division where they have cameras on buses and things is a very sophisticated AI based, if that's what you're talking about. Moving ahead a little bit, cars have a lot of sensors and glare can really blind these sensors. So I wouldn't rule out the possibility of maybe not in Gen 1 of these things but maybe in Gen 2, the SPD having a more meaningful role in protecting or making -- or enhancing the ability of these sensors to do their job and in some cases, protecting the sensor from damage.

And one more thing. I was noticing on your financials in your press release that cash and cash equivalents, current amount as of the end of September was about double what the decrease in cash and cash equivalents was during last quarter. So are you going to be raising more funds, or how is that going to be dealt with?

We don't need to. As I think we said in the press release, we don't anticipate raising capital unless there's a strategic reason like Mercedes wants to make an investment in us or something like that for the next five years, at least. I think we're going to be fine [Multiple Speakers] with our loss going down so dramatically.

Our next question comes from William Burg.

Some time ago, Joe, you stated that investors would be made happy but that happiness was pushed back a little bit. Today, you mentioned 2025. And are you saying that the Asian carmaker is going to be named in 2025 and that they're going to have more than one model, and it won't be just sunroofs but other windows on the vehicle as well?

No, I'm not saying that. What I said is that in Asia and in Europe, we expect multiple car models to come out and so those are going to have different areas than what people are traditionally used to. And our expectation is those come out in 2025. I'm not pinning it on which one is going to have the non-sunroof application or whatever, but that's our expectation.

So I'm not asking for which models will have what. But you stated that it will be more than just the sunroof, there will be other windows as well.

Other uses, yes. That's what I said. Which I think is exciting because every time something like this happens, and we'll just take, for example, the augmented realities, windshield that Bobcat put in their construction vehicle at CES, it sparks interest. Other companies were at CES that saw that and approached us and said we want this too. We like it. We saw it work. So every time there's a new use for this it opens up many doors beyond what we have opened now.

Our next question comes from Tom McCarthy.

Joe, I'm sorry if I missed it. But I'd like more information on the Saudi study, who funded it, who conducted it, how extensive was it, how rigorous are the results…

Yes, it was very rigorous and had some very good specific information. I don't know if you heard our discussion about it. I'm going to refer you to the article itself. I don't have it in front of me right now about who did it, who funded it. It wasn't us. It wasn't Research Frontier.

Is the article on your Web site?

No. I mean they have the copyright in it. So they have -- yes. But if you can get it online, I think it's been fairly widely available.

And how do I access it, what's the title of it?

If you listen to the transcript, which should be out tomorrow. There will be some data on it, but it's a mouthful.

At this time, we have no further questions.

Okay. In that case, if any of you had questions that we haven't fully answered, if you thought of anything else, just e-mail us, we’d do our best to answer them. And now I'd like to make some closing remarks. The outlook for the smart glass industry remains extremely promising, and I think we proved that every quarter and every day bolstered by growing revenues in automotive and aircraft and increasing regulatory support and tax incentives, and then new product introductions like the retrofit. Research Frontiers has a solid position and a strong foothold in the smart glass industry. We're well positioned as a recognized leader with an innovative, high performing and reliable solution. Our recent results underscore that SPD-SmartGlass technology is increasingly viewed as the industry standard solidifying our leadership even further. With our guidance, our entire industry has been strengthened as well with licensees gaining resources to expand and our technology being adopted across a diverse range of products and industries. In the interview yesterday, Gauzy mentioned that they had 700 employees. When I first met Eyal Peso, they had 50. Demand is rising from highly visible iconic global brands and their customers further validating our technology's transformative power. SPD-SmartGlass technology is enhancing customer experiences across sectors, especially in automotive and aerospace where it sets new standards of comfort and energy efficiency and performance. And in some industries where the customers such as airlines can finally now choose they are selecting SPD as shown by the new Airbus and Boeing programs. This quarter, we continued our track record of growth and progress with Research Frontiers and our licensees building traction and momentum across multiple industries and continued growth in our established markets, as well as opening up -- while we also open up new markets and uses for…

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for attending.