Pitney Bowes 2007 Annual Report Download - page 24

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6
to our industrial loan charter could impede our ability to maintain adequate liquidity, and impact our ability to provide
competitive offerings to our customers.
Privacy laws and other related regulations
Several of our services and financing businesses use, process and store customer information that could include confidential,
personal or financial information. We also provide third party benefits administrators with access to our employees’ personal
information. Privacy laws and similar regulations in many jurisdictions where we do business, as well as contractual
provisions, require that we and our benefits administrators take significant steps to safeguard this information. Failure to
comply with any of these laws, regulations or contract provisions could adversely affect our reputation and business and
subject us to significant liability.
Dependence on information systems
Our portfolio of product, service and financing solutions increases our dependence on information technologies. We
maintain a secure system to collect revenue for certain postal services, which is critical to enable both our systems and the
postal systems to run reliably. The continuous and uninterrupted performance of our systems is critical to our ability to
support and service our customers and to support postal services. While we do maintain back-up systems, these systems
could be damaged by acts of nature, power loss, telecommunications failures, computer viruses, vandalism and other
unexpected events. If our systems were disrupted, we could be prevented from fulfilling orders and servicing customers and
postal services, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and business.
Intellectual property infringement
We rely on copyright, trade secret, patent and other intellectual property laws in the United States and similar laws in other
countries to establish and protect proprietary rights that are important for our business. If we fail to enforce our intellectual
property rights, our business may suffer. We, or our suppliers, may be subject to third-party claims of infringement on
intellectual property rights. These claims, if successful, may require us to redesign affected products, enter into costly
settlement or license agreements, pay damage awards, or face a temporary or permanent injunction prohibiting us from
marketing or selling certain of our products.
Litigation and regulation
Our results may be affected by the outcome of legal proceedings and other contingencies that cannot be predicted with
certainty. As a large multi-national corporation that does business throughout all of the United States and in many other
countries, subsequent developments in legal proceedings, including private civil litigations or proceedings brought by
governmental entities, or changes in laws or regulations or their interpretation or administration, including developments in
antitrust law or regulation, class actions, or intellectual property litigations, could result in an adverse effect on our results of
operations. For a description of current legal proceedings and regulatory matters, see Legal Proceedings in Item 3 and Legal
and Regulatory Matters in Management’ s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Item
7 of this Form 10-K.
Government contracts
Many of our contracts are with governmental entities. Government contracts are subject to extensive and complex
government procurement laws and regulations, along with regular audits of contract pricing and our business practices by
government agencies. If we are found to have violated some provisions of the government contracts, we could be required to
provide a refund, pay significant damages, or be subject to contract cancellation, civil or criminal penalties, fines, or
debarment from doing business with the government. Any of these events could not only affect us financially but also affect
our brand and reputation.
ITEM 1B. – UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
None.
ITEM 2. – PROPERTIES
Our world headquarters and certain other facilities are located in Stamford, Connecticut. We have over 500 facilities that are
either leased or owned throughout the U.S. and other countries. Our Mailstream Solutions and Mailstream Services
businesses utilize these facilities jointly and separately. Our products are manufactured or assembled in a number of