12. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES (a) Lease commitments The Group entered into non-cancelable operating leases, primarily for office space, for initial terms of 12 to 36 months. Minimum rent payments under operating leases are recognized on a straight-line basis over the term of the lease. Future minimum lease payments under non-cancelable operating leases with remaining lease terms in excess of one year as of December 31, 2019 are: Minimum Lease Payment Amount Year ending December 31, 2019, 2020 $ 257,465 2021 243,966 2022 81,990 2023 42,608 2024 43,886 After 2024 18,705 $ 688,620 Rental expenses for operating leases for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 were $283,588 and $139,043, respectively. (b) Registration Rights Upon the Closing, the Company entered into an amended and restated registration rights agreement with certain existing investors of Bison (including its sponsor), Mark Yinglin Xu (together with his assignee, the "Backstop Investor") and the Sellers. Pursuant to this registration rights agreement, the Company has agreed to register for resale under the Securities Act of 1993, as amended (1) all or any portion of the 1,509,375 shares of common stock of Bison issued to certain existing investors (the "Founder Shares"), (2) 432,063 private units issued by Bison to certain existing investors in conjunction with the consummation of its initial public offering (the "Private Units"), (3) any private units which may be issued by Bison in payment of working capital loans made to Bison (the "Working Capital Units", together with Founder Shares, Private Units, the "Existing Registrable Securities"), (4) the Backstop Shares, and (5) the Merger Consideration Share (the "Newly Issued Shares"). The Backstop Shares, Newly issued Shares and the Existing Registrable Securities and any securities of Bison issued as a dividend or distribution with respect thereto or in exchange therefor are referred as the "Registrable Securities". At any time and from time to time on or after (i) the one month anniversary of the Closing with respect to the Private Units or Working Capital Units, (ii) three months prior to the release of the Founder Shares under the terms of a certain escrow agreement; (iii) the Closing Date with respect to the Backstop Shares, or (iv) nine months after the Closing with respect to the Newly Issued Shares, the holders of a majority of (i) all of the Existing Registrable Securities, (ii) all of the Backstop Shares, or (iii) all of the Newly Issued Shares, calculated on an as-converted basis, may make a written demand for registration under the Securities Act of all or part of their Registrable Securities, and other holders of the Registrable Securities will be entitled to join in such demand registration, provided that the Company shall not be obliged to effect more than two demand registrations in any one year period or more than an aggregate of three demand registrations. Subject to certain exceptions, if at any time on or after the Closing, the Company proposes to file a registration statement under the Securities Act with respect to an offering of equity securities, under the Registration Rights Agreement, the Company shall give written notice of such proposed filing to the holders of the Registrable Securities and offer them an opportunity to register the sale of such number of Registrable Securities as such holders may request in writing, subject to customary cut-backs. In addition, subject to certain exceptions, the holders of a majority of (i) all of the Existing Registrable Securities, (ii) all of the Backstop Shares, or (iii) all of the Newly Issued Shares, calculated on an as-converted basis, are entitled under the Registration Rights Agreement to request in writing that the Company register the resale of any or all of such Registrable Securities on Form S-3 or any similar short-form registration that may be available at such time. The Company agrees to use commercially reasonable efforts to effect the registration and sale of such Registrable Securities in accordance with the registration rights described above as expeditiously as practicable. In addition, the Company agrees, upon the request of the Backstop Investor, to use reasonable best efforts to cause registration with respect to the Backstop Shares to be declared effective no later than one-hundred and eighty (180) days following the Closing Date. As of the date hereof, the Backstop Investor has not requested to register the resales of such Backstop Shares. (c) Other commitments The Company has entered into certain licensing agreements for products currently under development. The Company may be obligated in future periods to make additional payments, which would become due and payable only upon the achievement of certain research and development, regulatory, and approval milestones. The specific timing of such milestones cannot be predicted and depend upon future discretionary research and clinical developments, as well as, regulatory agency actions. Further, under the terms of certain agreements the Company may be obligated to pay commercial milestones contingent upon the realization of sales revenues and sublicense revenues. Due to the long range nature of such commercial milestones, they are neither probable at this time nor predictable, and consequently are not considered contingent milestone payment amounts (See Note 11). The Company is involved in various claims and legal actions arising in the ordinary course of business. Management is of the opinion that the ultimate outcome of these matters would not have a material adverse impact on the financial position of the Company or the results of its operations. In the normal course of business, the Company enters into contracts in which it makes representations and warranties regarding the performance of its services and that its services will not infringe on third party intellectual rights. There have been no significant events related to such representations and warranties in which the Company believes the outcome could result in losses or penalties in the future. (d) Legal contingencies On July 12, 2019, one of the Contract Research Organizations (the "Plaintiff") of Xynomic Pharma filed a complaint in the Complex Commercial Litigation Division of the Superior Court of the State of Delaware against Xynonmic Pharma for breach of a contract under which Xynomic Pharma engaged the Plaintiff to provide services relating to drug development research, and Xynomic Pharma allegedly failed to pay the amount due to the Plaintiff for the services performed. The Plaintiff seeks $6,992,068 from Xynomic Pharma, plus interest at the contract rate of 1% per month. Xynomic Pharma responded to the complaint on August 19, 2019. On October 31, 2019, the Plaintiff filed Amended Complaint and seeks an updated amount of $7,617,316.60 from Xynomic Pharma, plus interest at the contract rate of 1% per month. Xynomic Pharma respond to the Amendeded Complaint on November 22, 2019. On December 23, 2019, the Plaintiff filed a motion for partial summary judgment for $5,539,201.80 plus pre-judgment and post-judgment interest thereon at the contract rate of 1% per month. On January 24, 2020 Xynomic Pharma responded to this motion for partial summary judgment and asked the Superior Court of the State of Delaware to dismiss this case based on the requirement to resolve any dispute using arbitration first per the Master Services Agreement entered into between Xynomic Pharma and the Plaintiff. On February 21, 2020, the Plaintiff filed a Reply Brief in further support of its motion for partial summary judgment and opposition to Xynomic Pharma's cross-motion for summary judgment. On March 9, 2020, Xynomic submitted its reply brief on its Cross-motion for Summary Judgment. On May 7, 2020, a telephonic hearing was held before Judge on the cross-motions for summary judgment. At the hearing, the Judge found that the parties should engage in mediation, pursuant to the contract. Mediation is scheduled for May 29, 2020. As of December 31, 2019, Xynomic Pharma had $8,443,746 payable to the Plaintiff which was included in accrued expenses and other current liabilities (see Note 7), including $698,022 accrued interest according to the contract.