Autodesk 2008 Annual Report Download - page 100

As a result of our strategy of partnering with other companies for product development, our product delivery
schedules could be adversely affected if we experience difficulties with our product development partners.
We partner with certain independent firms and contractors to perform some of our product development
activities. We believe our partnering strategy allows us to, among other things, achieve efficiencies in developing
new products and maintaining and enhancing existing product offerings. Our partnering strategy creates a
dependency on such independent developers. Independent developers, including those who currently develop
products for us in the United States and throughout the world, may not be able or willing to provide development
support to us in the future. In addition, use of development resources through consulting relationships,
particularly in non-US jurisdictions with developing legal systems, may be adversely impacted by, and expose us
to risks relating to, evolving employment, export and intellectual property laws. These risks could, among other
things, expose our intellectual property to misappropriation and result in disruptions to product delivery
schedules.
Our business would be adversely affected if we are unable to attract and retain key personnel.
Our success depends largely on our ability to attract and retain highly skilled technical, managerial, sales
and marketing personnel. Competition for these personnel is intense. The loss of services of any of our key
personnel, the inability to retain and attract qualified personnel in the future, or delays in hiring required
personnel, particularly engineering and sales personnel, could make it difficult to meet key objectives, such as
timely and effective product introductions.
If we are not able to adequately protect our proprietary rights, our business could be harmed.
We rely on a combination of patents, copyright and trademark laws, trade secrets, confidentiality procedures
and contractual provisions to protect our proprietary rights. Despite such efforts to protect our proprietary rights,
unauthorized parties from time to time have copied aspects of our software products or have obtained and used
information that we regard as proprietary. Policing unauthorized use of our software products is time-consuming
and costly. While we have recovered some revenue resulting from the unauthorized use of our software products,
we are unable to measure the extent to which piracy of our software products exists, and software piracy can be
expected to be a persistent problem. Furthermore, our means of protecting our proprietary rights may not be
adequate, and our competitors may independently develop similar technology.
ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
We have received no written comments regarding our periodic or current reports from the staff of the SEC
that were issued 180 days or more preceding the end of our 2008 fiscal year that remain unresolved.
ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
We lease 2,023,000 square feet of office space in 121 locations in the United States and internationally
through our foreign subsidiaries. Our executive offices and corporate headquarters are located in leased office
space in San Rafael, California. Our San Rafael facilities consist of 366,000 square feet under leases that have
expiration dates ranging from December 2009 to November 2012. We and our foreign subsidiaries lease
additional space in various locations throughout the world for local sales, product development and technical
support personnel.
All facilities are in good condition and are operating at capacities averaging 79% occupancy worldwide as
of January 31, 2008. We believe that our existing facilities and offices are adequate to meet our requirements for
the foreseeable future. See Note 6, “Commitments and Contingencies,” in the Notes to Consolidated Financial
Statements for more information about our lease commitments.
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