On January 1, Lehmann Corporation paid the annual royalty of $720,000 for rights to use patented technology to make batteries for laptop computers. Lehmann plans to use the patented technology to produce five different models of batteries. Lehmann uses machine hours as a common cost driver and plans to operate its machines 45,000 hours in the coming year. The company used 3,000 machine hours in June and 3,600 hours in July.
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Why would Lehmann need to allocate the annual royalty payment rather than simply assign it in total to January production? How much of the royalty cost should Lehmann allocate to products made in June and those made in July?