Citrix 2013 Annual Report Download - page 29

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Our use of “open source” software could negatively impact our ability to sell our products and subject us to possible
litigation.
The products or technologies acquired, licensed or developed by us may incorporate so-called “open source” software,
and we may incorporate open source software into other products in the future. Such open source software is generally licensed
by its authors or other third parties under open source licenses, including, for example, the GNU General Public License, the
GNU Lesser General Public License, “Apache-style” licenses, “Berkeley Software Distribution,” “BSD-style” licenses, and
other open source licenses. We monitor our use of open source software in an effort to avoid subjecting our products to
conditions we do not intend. Although we believe that we have complied with our obligations under the various applicable
licenses for open source software that we use such that we have not triggered any of these conditions, there is little or no legal
precedent governing the interpretation of many of the terms of these types of licenses. As a result, the potential impact of these
terms on our business may result in unanticipated obligations regarding our products and technologies, such as requirements
that we offer our products that use the open source software for no cost, that we make available source code for modifications
or derivative works we create based upon, incorporating or using the open source software, and/or that we license such
modifications or derivative works under the terms of the particular open source license.
If an author or other third party that distributes open source software were to allege that we had not complied with the
conditions of one or more of these licenses, we could be required to incur significant legal expenses defending against such
allegations. If our defenses were not successful, we could be subject to significant damages, enjoined from the distribution of
our products that contained open source software, and required to comply with the terms of the applicable license, which could
disrupt the distribution and sale of some of our products. In addition, if we combine our proprietary software with open source
software in an unintended manner, under some open source licenses we could be required to publicly release the source code of
our proprietary software.
In addition to risks related to license requirements, usage of open source software can lead to greater risks than use of
third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or assurance of title or controls
on the origin of the software.
If open source software programmers, many of whom we do not employ, do not continue to develop and enhance the open
source technologies we utilize, we may be unable to develop Cloud Platform products, adequately enhance our existing
cloud products or meet customer requirements for innovation, quality and price of cloud products.
We rely to a significant degree on an informal community of independent open source software programmers to develop
and enhance the Xen hypervisor, which is the heart of the XenServer virtualization product. Similarly, a small community of
software developers are primarily responsible for the development and enhancement of the open source CloudStack platform. If
these programmers fail to adequately further develop and enhance our open source technologies, we would need to further
develop and enhance these technologies with our own resources. Additionally, the CloudStack IaaS software platform is still an
emerging technology, making it difficult for us to predict the level of its adoption in the market. In any event, our development
expenses could be increased and our product release and upgrade schedules could be delayed. Delays in developing,
completing or shipping new or enhanced products could result in delayed or reduced revenue for those products and could also
adversely affect customer acceptance of those offerings.
Our business depends on maintaining and protecting our strong collection of brands.
The Citrix product and service brands that we have developed has significantly contributed to the success of our business.
Maintaining and enhancing the Citrix product and service brands is critical to expanding our base of customers and partners.
We may be subject to reputational risks if others adopt similar marks in an effort to misappropriate and profit on our brand
name and do not provide the same level of quality as is delivered by our products and services. In order to maintain, enhance
and protect our brands, we may be required to make substantial investments that may not be successful. If we fail to maintain,
enhance and protect the Citrix brands, if we incur excessive expenses in this effort or if customers or potential customers are
confused by others' trademarks, our business, operating results, and financial condition may be materially and adversely
affected.
If we lose access to third-party licenses, releases of our products could be delayed.
We believe that we will continue to rely, in part, on third-party licenses to enhance and differentiate our products. Third-
party licensing arrangements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including:
• undetected errors or unauthorized use of another person's code in the third party's software;
• disagreement over the scope of the license and other key terms, such as royalties payable;