eBay 2010 Annual Report Download - page 19

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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 strive
to continually improve 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 aggressively protect our
intellectual property rights by relying on federal, state and common law rights in the U.S. and internationally, as
well as a variety of administrative procedures. We also rely on contractual restrictions to protect our proprietary
rights in products and services. 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 pursue the registration of our domain names, trademarks, and service marks in the U.S. and
internationally. Effective trademark, copyright, patent, domain name, trade dress, and trade secret protection is
very expensive to maintain and may require litigation. We must protect our intellectual property rights and other
proprietary rights in an increasing number of jurisdictions, a process that is expensive and time consuming 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 protect our trademarks or domain names, we
could be adversely affected in any jurisdiction in which our trademarks or domain names are not registered. We
have licensed in the past, and expect to license in the future, certain of our proprietary rights, such as trademarks
or copyrighted material, to others.
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 the consolidated financial statements included in this report. 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 heading
“SEC Filings” our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form
8-K and amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after such materials are electronically
filed with (or furnished to) the SEC. Information contained on our websites is not incorporated by reference into
this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
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