NVIDIA 2013 Annual Report Download - page 155

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Our current competitors include:
• suppliers of discrete and integrated GPUs, including supercomputers and chipsets that incorporate 3D graphics
functionality as part of their existing solutions, such as Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD, and Intel Corporation;
• suppliers of SOC products that support tablets, smartphones, and PCs as well as products that are embedded into
smart devices such as televisions, monitors, set-top boxes, gaming devices and automobiles, such as AMD, ARM
Holdings plc, or ARM, Broadcom Corporation, Freescale Semiconductor Inc., HiSilicon Technologies Co., Ltd.,
Imagination Technologies Ltd., Intel, Marvell Technology Group Ltd., Mediatek, Qualcomm Incorporated, Renesas
Technology Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., ST Microelectronics, and Texas Instruments Incorporated;
• licensors of graphics technologies, such as ARM and Imagination Technologies Group plc.; and
• suppliers of cellular basebands, such as Broadcom Corporation, HiSilicon Technologies Co., Ltd., Intel, Marvell
Technology Group Ltd., Mediatek, Qualcomm Incorporated, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., and Spreadtrum
Communications Co., Ltd.
If and to the extent we offer products in new markets, we may face competition from existing competitors as well as
from companies with which we currently do not compete. We expect substantial competition from both Intel's and AMD's,
strategy of selling platform solutions, including integrating a CPU and a GPU on the same chip or same package, as evidenced
by Intel's CPUs with integrated graphics and AMD's accelerated processing unit, or APU, products. As AMD and Intel
continue to pursue platform solutions and integrated CPUs, we may not be able to successfully compete and our business
could be negatively impacted.
Patents and Proprietary Rights
We rely primarily on a combination of patents, trademarks, trade secrets, employee and third-party nondisclosure
agreements and licensing arrangements to protect our intellectual property in the United States and internationally. Our
currently issued patents have expiration dates from April 2014 to September 2033. We have numerous patents issued, allowed
and pending in the United States and in foreign jurisdictions. Our patents and pending patent applications primarily relate
to our products and the technology used in connection with our products. We also rely on international treaties, organizations
and foreign laws to protect our intellectual property. The laws of certain foreign countries in which our products are or may
be manufactured or sold, including various countries in Asia, may not protect our products or intellectual property rights
to the same extent as the laws of the United States. This decreased protection makes the possibility of piracy of our technology
and products more likely. We continuously assess whether and where to seek formal protection for particular innovations
and technologies based on such factors as:
• the location in which our products are manufactured;
• our strategic technology or product directions in different countries;
• the degree to which intellectual property laws exist and are meaningfully enforced in different jurisdictions; and
• the commercial significance of our operations and our competitors' operations in particular countries and regions.
We have also licensed technology from third parties for incorporation in some of our products and for defensive reasons,
and expect to continue to enter into such license agreements.