Salesforce.com 2011 Annual Report Download - page 20

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• low total cost of ownership and demonstrable cost-effective benefits for customers;
• performance, security, scalability, flexibility and reliability of the service;
• ease of integration with existing applications;
• quality of customer support;
• availability and quality of implementation, consulting and training services; and
• vendor reputation and brand awareness.
Intellectual Property
We rely on a combination of trademark, copyright, trade secret and patent laws in the United States and
other jurisdictions as well as confidentiality procedures and contractual provisions to protect our proprietary
technology and our brand. We also enter into confidentiality and proprietary rights agreements with our
employees, consultants and other third parties and control access to software, documentation and other
proprietary information.
As of January 31, 2011, we have a number of issued U.S. patents and hundreds of pending U.S. and
international patent applications. We have received in the past, and may receive in the future, communications
from third parties claiming that we have infringed the intellectual property rights of others. The cost to defend or
settle these claims could be material to the net income or cash flows or both of a particular quarter. The outcome
of any litigation is inherently uncertain. Any intellectual property claims, with or without merit, could be time-
consuming and expensive to resolve, could divert management attention from executing our business plan and
could require us to change our technology, change our business practices and/or pay monetary damages or enter
into short- or long-term royalty or licensing agreements which may not be available in the future at the same
terms or at all. In addition, many of our subscription agreements require us to indemnify our customers for third-
party intellectual property infringement claims, which would increase the cost to us of an adverse ruling on such
a claim. Any adverse determination related to intellectual property claims or litigation could prevent us from
offering our service to others, or could otherwise adversely affect our operating results or cash flows or both in a
particular quarter.
Employees
As of January 31, 2011, we had 5,306 employees. None of our employees is represented by a labor union.
Available Information
You can obtain copies of our Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K,
and other filings with the SEC, and all amendments to these filings, free of charge from our Web site at
http://www.salesforce.com/company/investor/sec-filings/ as soon as reasonably practicable following our filing of
any of these reports with the SEC. You can also obtain copies free of charge by contacting our Investor Relations
department at our office address listed above.
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