Urban Outfitters 2009 Annual Report Download - page 11

merchandise price. Although we feel the eclectic mix of products offered in our retail stores helps
differentiate us, it also means that our Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People and Terrain stores
compete against a wide variety of smaller, independent specialty stores, as well as department stores
and national specialty chains. Many of our competitors have substantially greater name recognition as
well as financial, marketing and other resources. Our Anthropologie and Free People stores also face
competition from small boutiques that offer an individualized shopping experience similar to the one
we strive to provide to our target customers. In addition, some of our suppliers offer products directly
to consumers and certain of our competitors.
Along with certain retail segment factors noted above, other key competitive factors for our
direct-to-consumer operations include the success or effectiveness of customer mailing lists, response
rates, catalog presentation, merchandise delivery and web site design and availability. Our
direct-to-consumer operations compete against numerous catalogs and web sites, which may have a
greater volume of circulation and web traffic.
Our Free People and Leifsdottir wholesale businesses compete with numerous wholesale
companies based on the quality, fashion and price of our wholesale product offerings. Many of our
wholesale business competitors’ products have a wider distribution network. In addition, certain of our
wholesale competitors have greater name recognition and financial and other resources.
Trademarks and Service Marks
We are the registered owner in the United States of certain service marks and trademarks,
including “Urban Outfitters”, “Anthropologie”, “Urban Renewal”, “Free People”, “Co-Operative”,
“Ecote”, “4040 Locust”, “+. . . .”, “A Little Birdie Told Me”, “Allihop”, “BDG Guaranteed Tough”,
“Bica Cheia”, “Brand: All-Son”, “Cartonnier”, “Character Hero”, “Charlie & Robin”, “Darling Blue”,
“Deletta”, “Edmé & Esyllte”, “Elevenses”, “Ett Twå”, “Fairytales Are True”, “Featherbone”, “Field
Flower”, “Fink”, “Floreat”, “Hand Knit by Dollie”, “Hawkings McGill”, “Hei-Hei”, “Hi-Brow”,
“Idra”, “Kimchi & Blue”, “Knitted & Knotted”, “Laureate Lane”, “Lilka”, “Little Yellow Button”,
“Lucky Penny”, “Maeve”, “Moulinette Soeurs”, “Nap Time”, “Odille”, “O’Hanlon Mills Carragn
Kerry”, “Oiseau”, “Peasandqueues”, “Pure & Good”, “Ric-Rac”, “Salt Valley Western”, “Satu Field of
Freesia”, “Satu Plum Nectar”, “Satu Vanilla Infusion”, “Shiny Pine”, “Silence & Noise”, “Sitwell”,
“Sleeping on Snow”, “Sparkle & Fade”, “Sparrow”, “Standard Cloth Washington Street”,
“Stapleford”, “Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday”, “Taikonhu”,
“Terrain at Styer’s”, “The Charmer”, “This Tree Needs You”, “UO”, and “Urbn.com.” Each mark is
renewable indefinitely, contingent upon continued use at the time of renewal. In addition, we currently
have pending registration applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office covering certain
other marks. We also own marks that have been registered in foreign countries, and have applications
for marks pending in additional foreign countries as well. We regard our marks as important to our
business due to their name recognition with our customers. We are not aware of any valid claims of
infringement or challenges to our right to use any of our marks in the United States.
Employees
As of January 31, 2009, we employed approximately 12,500 people, approximately 44% of whom
are full-time employees. The number of part-time employees fluctuates depending on seasonal needs.
Of our total employees, 2% work in the wholesale segment and the remaining 98% work in our retail
segment. None of our employees are covered by a collective bargaining agreement, and we believe
that our relations with our employees are excellent.
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