Overstock.com 2010 Annual Report Download - page 11

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Table of Contents
order delivery time;
customer service; and
brand recognition.
We compete with other online retailers and traditional retailers and liquidation "brokers", some of which may specifically adopt our methods and target
our customers. We currently or potentially compete with a variety of companies that can be divided into several broad categories:
liquidation e-tailers such as SmartBargains;
online general retailers with discount departments such as Amazon.com, Inc., eBay, Inc. and Buy.com, Inc.;
private sale sites such as Rue La La, Gilt Groupe;
online specialty retailers such as Bluefly, Inc., Blue Nile, Inc. and Backcountry.com; and
traditional retailers and liquidators such as Ross Stores, Inc., Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., TJX Companies, Inc., Costco Wholesale Corporation, J.C.
Penney Company, Inc., Sears Holding Corporation, Target Corporation, Best Buy Co., Inc. and Barnes and Noble, Inc., all of which also have an
online presence.
Many of our current and potential competitors have greater brand recognition, longer operating histories, larger customer bases and significantly greater
financial, marketing and other resources than we do. Further, any of them may enter into strategic or commercial relationships with larger, more established
and well-financed companies, including exclusive distribution arrangements with our vendors that could deny us access to their products. Many of them could
devote greater resources to marketing and promotional campaigns and devote substantially more resources to their website and systems development than we
do. New technologies and the continued enhancement of existing technologies also may increase competitive pressures on us. We cannot ensure that we will
be able to compete successfully against current and future competitors or address increased competitive pressures (see Item 1A—"Risk Factors").
Seasonality
Our business is affected by seasonality, which historically has resulted in higher sales volume during our fourth quarter, which ends December 31. We
recognized 32.0%, 36.8% and 30.6% of our annual revenue during the fourth quarter of 2010, 2009, and 2008, respectively.
Financial Information about Geographic Areas
See Item 15 of Part IV, "Financial Statements"—Note 23—"Business Segments" for more information.
Intellectual Property
We regard our domain names and similar intellectual property as critical to our success. We rely on a combination of laws and contractual restrictions
with our employees, customers, suppliers, affiliates and others to establish and protect our proprietary rights. Despite these precautions, it may be possible for
a third party to copy or otherwise obtain and use our intellectual property without authorization. In addition, we cannot ensure that others will not
independently develop similar intellectual property. Although we have registered and are pursuing the registration of our key trademarks in the United States
and some other countries, some of our trade names may not be eligible to receive registered trademark protection. In addition, effective trademark protection
may not
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