January 1, 20x1, as related to the establishment of the patent. On June 30, 20x2, Pitchfork spent $130,000 to successfully defend a patent infringement case against the drug. As a result, the estimated remaining useful life was determined to be 16 years from June 30, 20x2. Pitchfork uses the straight-line method to amortize intangibles. What is the amount of amortization expense Pitchfork will record on their December 31, 20x2, Income Statement

The question is incomplete since the cost of the patent is missing. I will try to answer the question using some random number for the cost:

purchase cost of the patent = $200,000

assuming that the patent originally had a useful life of 10 years

patent amortization for 2021 = $200,000 / 10 = $20,000

patent's carrying value Dec. 31, 2021 = $200,000 - $20,000 = $180,000

since the company incurred legal costs = $130,000 and was able to extend the patent's useful life:

amortization expense January 1 to June 30 2022 = $20,000 x 6/12 = $10,000

carrying value of the patent on June 30, 2022 = $180,000 - $10,000 + $130,000 = $300,000

since the patent's useful life was extended to 16 years, starting June 30, 2022, the amortization expense per year = $300,000 / 16 years = $18,750

total amortization expense during 2022 = $10,000 (for the first 6 months) + $18,750/2 (for the remaining 6 months) = $10,000 + $9,375 = $19,375

the third answer is correct.