Adobe 2011 Annual Report Download - page 33

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developed by others with license or technology transfer agreements that may obligate us to pay a flat license fee or royalties,
typically based on a dollar amount per unit shipped or a percentage of the revenue generated by those programs.
During fiscal years 2011, 2010 and 2009, our research and development expenses were $738.1 million, $680.3 million and
$565.1 million, respectively.
PRODUCT PROTECTION
We regard our software as proprietary and protect it under the laws of copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets.
We have a number of domestic and foreign patents and pending applications that relate to various aspects of our products and
technology. While we believe our patents have value, no single patent is material to us or to any of our reporting segments. We
protect the source code of our software programs as trade secrets and make source code available to third parties only under limited
circumstances and subject to specific security and confidentiality constraints.
Our products are generally licensed to end users under one of the following two methods:
(1) We offer many products on a “right to use” basis pursuant to a license that restricts the use of the products to a designated
number of devices. We also rely on copyright laws and on “shrink wrap” and electronic licenses that are not physically
signed by the end user. Copyright protection may be unavailable under the laws of certain countries and the enforceability
of “shrink wrap” and electronic licenses has not been conclusively determined in all jurisdictions.
(2) We also offer products under a SaaS or on-demand model, where hosted software is provided on demand to customers,
generally through a web browser. The use of these products is generally governed by terms of use associated with these
products.
Policing unauthorized use of computer software is difficult and software piracy is a persistent problem for the software
industry. This problem is particularly acute in international markets. We conduct anti-piracy programs directly and through certain
external software associations. In addition, we have activation technology in certain products to guard against illegal use and will
continue to do so in certain future products.
EMPLOYEES
As of December 2, 2011, we employed 9,925 people. We have not experienced work stoppages and believe our employee
relations are good.
AVAILABLE INFORMATION
Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to
reports filed or furnished pursuant to Sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, are available
free of charge on our Investor Relations website at www.adobe.com/adbe as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically
file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. The information posted on our website is not incorporated into this report.
EXECUTIVE OFFICERS
Adobe’s executive officers as of January 20, 2012 are as follows:
Name
Shantanu Narayen
Age
48
Positions
President and Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Narayen currently serves as Adobe’s President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Narayen
joined Adobe in January 1998 as Vice President and General Manager of Adobe’s engineering
technology group. In January 1999, he was promoted to Senior Vice President, Worldwide
Products and in March 2001 he was promoted to Executive Vice President, Worldwide Product
Marketing and Development. In January 2005, Mr. Narayen was promoted to President and Chief
Operating Officer and in December 2007, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Adobe
and joined the Adobe Board of Directors. Prior to joining Adobe, Mr. Narayen co-founded Pictra
Inc., a digital photo sharing software company, in 1996. He was Director of Desktop and
Collaboration products at Silicon Graphics Inc. before founding Pictra. Mr. Narayen is also a
director of Dell Inc.
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