Blackberry 2014 Annual Report Download - page 33

25
On March 21, 2014, the Company announced it had entered into an agreement for the divestiture of the majority of its real
estate holdings in Canada, with an expected closing in the first quarter of fiscal 2015.
USA & Latin America
The Company leases or owns a total of 37 sites throughout the United States. 981,018 square feet of this space are leased and
460,297 square feet are owned. The majority of this space is primarily used for research and development. Sales and marketing
activities in Latin and South America are supported by approximately 26,391 square feet with locations in Brazil, Argentina and
Mexico. Of the total square footage in USA & Latin America, 412,612 square feet was either sold or listed for sale as part of
the CORE program in fiscal 2014.
EMEA - Europe, Middle East & Africa
The Company’s operations in Europe are headquartered in Slough, England, comprising 68,893 square feet in total. Operations
in Germany are comprised of five leased facilities totaling 119,251 square feet, which are used for research and development
and sales. A number of other small offices are leased throughout Europe. In total, BlackBerry leases 433,656 square feet across
Europe, which are primarily used for sales and marketing activities. As part of the CORE program, 170,975 square feet of the
space in Europe is no longer being used by BlackBerry and was subleased in fiscal 2014.
Asia-Pacific
In China, the Company leases approximately 103,633 square feet, including space for research and development in Beijing. In
addition, a number of small sales-based offices are 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
215,521 square feet for sales and marketing activities.
LEGAL 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” in this AIF,
including the risk factors entitled “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 defending these claims and could be subject
to significant damage awards or other remedies” and “The Company may infringe on the intellectual property rights of others”.
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 probable 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 which the outcome
is not determinable or claims where the amount of the loss cannot be reasonably estimated. Any settlements or awards under
such claims are provided for when reasonably determinable.
Though the Company does not believe the following legal proceedings will result in a significant loss, and does not believe
they are claims for which the outcomes are determinable or where the amounts of the loss can be reasonably estimated, the
Company has included the following summaries of certain of its legal proceedings that it believes may be of interest to its
investors.
On October 31, 2008, Mformation Technologies, Inc. (“Mformation”) filed a patent infringement lawsuit against the Company
in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The patents in suit include U.S. Patent Nos. 6,970,917 and
7,343,408. These patents are generally directed to remote device management functionality. A jury trial began on June 19,
2012. On July 13, 2012, the jury found that the Company had infringed the asserted patent claims, awarding damages of $147.2
Table of Contents