Blackberry 2010 Annual Report Download - page 89

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Deferred Share Unit Plan
The Company issued 14,593 DSUs in the year ended February 27, 2010. There are 34,801 DSUs outstanding as at
February 27, 2010 (February 28, 2009 — 20,208). The Company had a liability of $2.5 million in relation to the DSU plan as
at February 27, 2010 (February 28, 2009 — $834).
12. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
(a) Credit Facility
The Company has $150.0 million in unsecured demand credit facilities (the “Facilities”) to support and secure operating and
financing requirements. As at February 27, 2010, the Company has utilized $6.9 million of the Facilities for outstanding
letters of credit, and $143.1 million of the Facilities are unused.
(b) Lease commitments
The Company is committed to future minimum annual lease payments under operating leases as follows:
Real Estate
Equipment and
other Total
For the years ending
2011 ........................................................................................................... $ 35,088 $ 1,917 $ 37,005
2012........................................................................................................... 30,611 1,202 31,813
2013........................................................................................................... 27,841 163 28,004
2014 .......................................................................................................... 26,178 – 26,178
2015........................................................................................................... 21,755 – 21,755
Thereafter ................................................................................................. 63,631 – 63,631
$ 205,104 $ 3,282 $ 208,386
For the year ended February 27, 2010, the Company incurred rental expense of $39.6 million (February 28, 2009 —
$22.7 million; March 1, 2008 — $15.5 million).
(c) Litigation
On July 23, 2009, the Company settled the Visto Litigation. The key terms of the settlement involved the Company receiving
a perpetual and fully-paid license on all Visto patents, a transfer of certain Visto intellectual property, a one-time payment
by the Company of $267.5 million and the parties executing full and final releases in respect of the Visto Litigation. Of the
total payment by the Company, $163.8 million was expensed as a litigation charge in the second quarter of fiscal 2010. The
remainder of the payment was recorded as intangible assets.
The Company is involved in litigation in the normal course of its business, both as a defendant and as a plaintiff. The
Company may be subject to claims (including claims related to patent infringement, purported class actions and
derivative actions) either directly or through indemnities against these claims that it provides to certain of it partners. In
particular, the industry in which the Company competes has many participants that own, or claim to own, intellectual
property, including participants that have been issued patents and may have filed patent applications or may obtain
additional patents and proprietary rights for technologies similar to those used by the Company in its products. The
Company has received, and may receive in the future, assertions and claims from third parties that the Company’s
products infringe on their patents or other intellectual property rights. Litigation has been and will likely continue to be
necessary to determine the scope, enforceability and validity of third-party proprietary rights or to establish the
Company’s proprietary rights. Regardless of whether claims that the Company is infringing patents or other intellectual
property rights have any merit, those claims could be time-consuming to evaluate and defend, result in costly litigation,
divert management’s attention and resources, subject the Company to significant liabilities and could have other effects.
Additional lawsuits and claims, including purported class actions and derivative actions, may also be filed or made based
upon the Company’s historical stock option granting practices.
Management reviews all of the relevant facts for each claim and applies judgment in evaluating the likelihood and, if
applicable, the amount of any potential loss. Where it is considered likely for a material exposure to result and where the
amount of the claim is quantifiable, provisions for loss are made based on management’s assessment of the likely
outcome. The Company does not provide for claims that are considered unlikely to result in a significant loss, claims for
NOTES 11  12
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