Citrix 2014 Annual Report Download - page 31

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• an increase in the number of competitors in our industry segments and the resulting increase in the number of
related products and services and the overlap in the functionality of those products and services;
• an increase in the number of our competitors and third parties that use their own intellectual property rights to limit
our freedom to operate and exploit our products, or to otherwise block us from taking full advantage of our
markets;
• our products and services may rely on the technology of others and, therefore, require us to obtain intellectual
property licenses from third parties in order for us to commercialize our products or services and we may not be
able to obtain or continue to obtain licenses from these third parties on reasonable terms; and
• the unauthorized or improperly licensed use of third-party code in our product development process.
Further, responding to any infringement claim, regardless of its validity or merit, could result in costly litigation. Further,
intellectual property litigation could compel us to do one or more of the following:
• pay damages (including the potential for treble damages), license fees or royalties (including royalties for past
periods) to the party claiming infringement;
• stop licensing products or providing services that use the challenged intellectual property;
• obtain a license from the owner of the asserted intellectual property to sell or use the relevant technology, which
license may not be available on reasonable terms, or at all; or
• redesign the challenged technology, which could be time consuming and costly, or not be accomplished.
If we were compelled to take any of these actions, our business, results of operations or financial condition may be impacted.
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. Even though we attempt to monitor our use of open source software in an effort to avoid subjecting
our products to conditions we do not intend, it is possible that not all instances of our open source code usage are properly
reviewed. Further, 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 or enforcement of many of the terms of these types of licenses. 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, offer our products
that use the open source software for no cost, make available source code for modifications or derivative works we create based
upon incorporating or using the open source software, and/or license such modifications or derivative works under the terms of
the particular open source license.
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 technology support, maintenance,
warranties or assurance of title or controls on the origin of the software.
Our business depends on maintaining and protecting the strength of our 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 and our brand loyalty may decline if others adopt the same or confusingly 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. Additionally, we may be unable to use some of our brands in certain countries or unable to secure
trademark rights in certain jurisdictions where we do business. In order to police, maintain, enhance and protect our brands, we
may be required to make substantial investments that may not be successful. If we fail to police, 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.