eBay 2009 Annual Report Download - page 21

Seasonality
We expect transaction activity patterns on our websites to mirror general consumer buying patterns. Please
see the information in “Item 7: Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations” under the caption “Seasonality.”
Technology
Our Marketplaces and Payments platforms utilize a combination of proprietary technologies and services as
well as technologies and services provided by others. We have developed intuitive user interfaces, customer tools
and transaction processing, database and network applications that help enable our users to reliably and securely
complete transactions on our sites. Our technology infrastructure simplifies the storage and processing of large
amounts of data, eases the deployment and operation of large-scale global products and services and automates
much of the administration of large-scale clusters of computers. Our infrastructure has been designed around
industry-standard architectures to reduce downtime in the event of outages or catastrophic occurrences. We are
continually improving our technology to enhance the customer experience and to increase efficiency, scalability
and security. For information regarding technology related risks, see the information in “Item 1A: Risk Factors”
under the captions “Our failure to cost-effectively manage certain aspects of our business could harm us,” and
“System failures could harm our business.”
Intellectual Property
We regard the protection of our intellectual property as critical to our success. We have entered into
confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and contractors, and nondisclosure
agreements with parties with whom we conduct business in order to limit access to and disclosure of our
proprietary information.
We aggressively protect our intellectual property rights by relying on federal, state and common law rights,
as well as a variety of administrative procedures. We actively pursue the registration of our trademarks,
copyrights, patents and domain names in the U.S. and international jurisdictions. The expansion of our business
has required us to protect our trademarks, patents and domain names in an increasing number of jurisdictions, a
process that is expensive, may require litigation, and may not be successful in every location. We have registered
our core brands as trademarks and domain names in the U.S. and a large number of other jurisdictions and have
in place an active program to continue to secure trademarks and domain names that correspond to our brands in
markets of interest. If we are unable to secure our trademarks or domain names, we could be adversely affected
in any jurisdiction in which our trademarks or domain names are not registered.
Third parties have from time to time claimed, and others may claim in the future, that we have infringed
their intellectual property rights. We currently are involved in several such legal proceedings. Please see the
information in “Item 3: Legal Proceedings” and in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” under the captions “We are subject to
patent litigation” and “We may be unable to protect or enforce our own intellectual property rights adequately.”
Segments and Geographic Information
For an analysis of financial information about our segments as well as our geographic areas, please see
“Note 6 — Segments” to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on
Form 10-K. Please see the information in “Item 1A: Risk Factors” under the caption “There are many risks
associated with our international operations.”
Available Information
Our Internet address is www.ebay.com. Our investor relations website is located at
http://investor.ebayinc.com. We make available free of charge on our investor relations website under the
13