Blackberry 2013 Annual Report Download - page 41

legal, research and development, customer service operations and administrative activities. In Raleigh, North Carolina the Company
has a total of 56,812 square feet located within the CentreGreen campus. The Company leases an additional 491,139 square feet
throughout the United States, primarily for research and development. Sales and marketing and distribution activities in Latin and
South America are supported by approximately 19,800 square feet with locations in Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.
E
MEA – Europe, Middle East & Africa
The Company’s operations in Europe are headquartered out of two locations in Slough, England comprising of 101,874 square feet in
total. Operations in Germany are comprised of six leased facilities totaling 136,096 square feet used for research & development and
sales. A number of other small offices are leased throughout Europe, totaling 130,122 square feet, which are used primarily for sales
and marketing activities.
A
sia-Pacific
The Company has continued to expand operations in the Asia Pacific region. In China alone, the Company leases approximately
108,484 square feet, including space for research and development in Beijing. A number of small sales-based offices are also located
throughout China. As a whole, the Company operates out of Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia,
Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand with a total space of 190,133 square feet for sales and marketing activities and customer
operations support.
Globally, the Company operates a number of leased and owned datacenters totaling approximately 400,000 square feet of space.
L
egal Proceedings
The Company is involved in litigation in the normal course of its business, both as a defendant and as a plaintiff. The Company is
subject to a variety of claims (including claims related to patent infringement, purported class actions and other claims in the normal
course of business) and may be subject to additional claims either directly or through indemnities against claims that it provides to
certain of its partners and customers. 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 against the Company have 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 the other effects that are
described in greater detail under “Risk Factors – Risks Related to Intellectual Property” and “Risk Factors - Risks Related to the
Company’s Business and its Industry - The Company is subject to general commercial litigation, class action and other litigation
claims as part of its operations, and it could suffer significant litigation expenses in
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