ACACIA RESEARCH CORP

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

Under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, we conducted an evaluation of our disclosure controls and procedures, as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act.

Based on this evaluation, our principal executive officer and principal financial officer concluded that as a result of the material weakness and control deficiencies as reported in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as of September 30, 2025. The material weakness will not be considered remediated until the applicable new or enhanced controls operate for a sufficient period of time and management has concluded, through testing, that these controls are designed and operating effectively.

Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

Other than planned remediation efforts previously disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, there were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the three months ended September 30, 2025 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

Inherent Limitations on Effectiveness of Controls

Our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial officer, does not expect that our disclosure controls or our internal control over financial reporting will prevent or detect all error and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the control system’s objectives will be met. The design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Further, because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that misstatements due to error or fraud will not occur or that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, have been detected. The design of any system of controls is based in part on certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions. Projections of any evaluation of the effectiveness of controls to future periods are subject to risks. Over time, controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions or deterioration in the degree of compliance with policies or procedures.