Xenon Tech acquired a patent on January 1st, 2013, for $26,400. The patent was estimated to have a useful life of 12 years. On July 1st, 2017, the company incurred legal fees of $6,000 to successfully defend the patent in an infringement suit. How much amortization expense will Xenon Tech recognize on the Income Statement for the year ended December 31st, 2017?

The first step here would be to calculate the amortization expenses for the first 4 years of the patent, here will use straight line depreciation method,

Formula - original value of asset / useful life in years

- $26,400 / 12

- $2200

Now for the 4 years this amount would become $2200 x 4 = $8800

The amount of amortization for the first half of 2017 ( up to 30 June ) would be-

= half of full year expenses

= $2200 / 2

= $1100

So up to 30 June 2017, the expenses are $9900 ( $8800+$1100), So the new book value would be = $26,400 - $9900

= $16,500

In this $16,500 we will add the amount of legal fees, so the total would be -

$16,500 + $6000

= $22,500

The next step is to divide this value by remaining useful; years which is 7.5,

$22,500 / 7.5

= $3000

Now we will divide this amount by 2 because we have to take out expense for remaining last 6 months of 2017

$3000 / 2

= $1500

Adding the expenses for first and second half of 2017 to take out total amortization expense of 2017 -

$1100 + $1500

= $2600