ServiceMagic 2011 Annual Report Download - page 23

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Table of Contents
could curtail our ability to transact payments. The failure of any of our businesses, or their various third party vendors and service providers, to
comply with applicable privacy policies or federal, state or similar international laws and regulations or any compromise of security that results
in the unauthorized release of personally identifiable information or other user data could adversely affect our business, financial condition and
results of operations.
We may fail to adequately protect our intellectual property rights or may be accused of infringing intellectual property rights of third parties.
We regard our intellectual property rights, including trademarks, domain names, trade secrets, patents, copyrights and other similar
intellectual property, as critical to our success. For example, the businesses within our principal reporting segments, our Search, Match and
ServiceMagic reporting segments, rely heavily upon their trademarks (primarily Ask.com and Dictionary.com, our various toolbar brands,
Match.com, OkCupid.com, Meetic.com and ServiceMagic.com and related domain names and logos), through which they market their products
and services and seek to build and maintain brand loyalty and recognition. So long as these businesses continue to use these trademarks to
identify their products and services and renew related trademarks upon their expiration, they will continue to have related trademark protections
indefinitely under current trademark laws, rules and regulations.
The businesses within our Search segment also rely heavily upon trade secrets, primarily search algorithms through which organic search
results are generated. To a lesser extent, these businesses also rely upon patented and patent-pending proprietary technologies and processes,
primarily those relating to search-related products and services, with expiration dates for patented technologies ranging from 2017 to 2027, and
copyrighted material, primarily emoticons, characters and other content that is incorporated into, and used in connection with the marketing of,
toolbars generally.
Our Match segment also relies upon trade secrets and certain patent-pending proprietary technologies relating to matching process systems
and related features, products and services. Our ServiceMagic segment also relies heavily upon trade secrets, primarily the matching algorithm
through which members of its network of local service professionals are matched with consumers, as well as related patented proprietary
technologies that expire in 2020.
We rely on a combination of laws and contractual restrictions with employees, customers, suppliers, affiliates and others to establish and
protect our various intellectual property rights. For example, we have generally registered and continue to apply to register and renew, or secure
by contract where appropriate, trademarks and service marks as they are developed and used, and reserve, register and renew domain names as
we deem appropriate. Effective trademark protection may not be available or may not be sought in every country in which products and services
are made available and contractual disputes may affect the use of marks governed by private contract. Similarly, not every variation of a domain
name may be available or be registered, even if available.
We also generally seek to apply for patents or for other similar statutory protections as and if we deem appropriate, based on then current
facts and circumstances, and will continue to do so in the future. No assurances can be given that any patent application we have filed will result
in a patent being issued, or that any existing or future patents will afford adequate protection against competitors and similar technologies. In
addition, no assurances can be given that third parties will not create new products or methods that achieve similar results without infringing
upon patents we own.
Despite these precautions, our intellectual property rights may still not be protected in a meaningful manner, challenges to contractual rights
could arise or third parties could copy or otherwise obtain and use our intellectual property without authorization. The occurrence of any of these
events could result in the erosion of our brand names and limitations on our ability to control marketing on or through the internet using our
various domain names, as well as impede our ability to effectively
20