Activision Blizzard (ATVI)

Our products are subject to the threat of piracy and unauthorized copying, and inadequate intellectual property laws and other protections could prevent us from enforcing or defending our proprietary technologies. We may also face legal risks arising out of user-generated content.

        We regard our software as proprietary and rely on a combination of copyright, patent, trademark and trade secret laws, employee and third-party nondisclosure agreements, and other methods to protect our proprietary rights. We own or license various copyrights, patents, and trademarks. We are aware that some unauthorized copying occurs, and if a significantly greater amount of unauthorized copying of our software products were to occur, it could cause harm to our business and financial results.

        Policing unauthorized use of our products is difficult, and software piracy is a persistent problem, especially in certain countries. Further, the laws of some countries where our products are or may be distributed either do not protect their products and intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the U.S., or are poorly enforced. Legal protection of our rights may be ineffective in such countries. In addition, though we take steps to make the unauthorized copying and distribution of our products more difficult, as do the manufacturers of consoles on which some of those games (and a majority of those games published by Activision) are played, our efforts and the efforts of the console manufacturers may not be successful in controlling the piracy of our products. Organized pirate operations have been expanding globally. In addition, the proliferation of technology designed to circumvent the protection measures used in our products, the availability of broadband access to the Internet, the ability to download pirated copies of games from various Internet sites and peer-to-peer networks, and the widespread proliferation of Internet cafes using pirated copies of our products all have contributed to an expansion in piracy. This could have a negative effect on our growth and profitability in the future.

        Moreover, as we leverage our software products using technologies such as the Internet and online services, and as user-generated content increases, our ability to protect our intellectual property rights and to avoid infringing intellectual property rights of others may diminish. We cannot be certain that existing intellectual property laws will provide adequate protection for our products in connection with these emerging technologies.

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Table of Contents

Our products are subject to the threat of piracy and unauthorized copying, and inadequate intellectual property laws and other protections could prevent us from enforcing or
defending our proprietary technologies. We may also face legal risks arising out of user-generated content.

        We regard our software as proprietary and rely on a combination of copyright, patent, trademark and trade secret laws, employee and
third-party nondisclosure agreements, and other methods to protect our proprietary rights. We own or license various copyrights, patents, and trademarks. We are aware that some unauthorized copying
occurs, and if a significantly greater amount of unauthorized copying of our software products were to occur, it could cause harm to our business and financial results.

        Policing
unauthorized use of our products is difficult, and software piracy is a persistent problem, especially in certain countries. Further, the laws of some countries where our
products are or may be distributed either do not protect their products and intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the U.S., or are poorly enforced. Legal protection of our
rights may be ineffective in such countries. In addition, though we take steps to make the unauthorized copying and distribution of our products more difficult, as do the manufacturers of consoles on
which some of those games (and a majority of those games published by Activision) are played, our efforts and the efforts of the console manufacturers may not be successful in controlling the piracy
of our products. Organized pirate operations have been expanding globally. In addition, the proliferation of technology designed to circumvent the protection measures used in our products, the
availability of broadband access to the Internet, the ability to download pirated copies of games from various Internet sites and peer-to-peer networks, and the widespread
proliferation of Internet cafes using pirated copies of our products all have contributed to an expansion in piracy. This could have a negative effect on our growth and profitability in the future.

        Moreover,
as we leverage our software products using technologies such as the Internet and online services, and as user-generated content increases, our ability to protect
our intellectual property rights and to avoid infringing intellectual property rights of others may diminish. We cannot be certain that existing intellectual property laws will provide adequate
protection for our products in connection with these emerging technologies.

25

HREF="#bg18301a_main_toc">Table of Contents

We regard our software as proprietary and rely on a combination of copyright, patent, trademark and trade secret laws, employee and third-party nondisclosure agreements, and other methods to protect our proprietary rights. We own or license various copyrights, patents, and trademarks.  We are aware that some unauthorized copying occurs, and if a significantly greater amount of unauthorized copying of our software products were to occur, it could cause material harm to our business and financial results.

Policing unauthorized use of our products is difficult, and software piracy is a persistent problem, especially in certain countries. Further, the laws of some countries where our products are or may be distributed either do not protect their products and intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the U.S., or are poorly enforced. Legal protection of our rights may be ineffective in such countries. In addition, though we take steps to make the unauthorized copying and distribution of our products more difficult, as do the manufacturers of consoles on which some of those games (and a majority of those games published by Activision) are played, our efforts and the efforts of the console manufacturers may not be successful in controlling the piracy of our products. Organized pirate operations have been expanding globally. In addition, the proliferation of technology designed to circumvent the protection measures used in our products, the availability of broadband access to the Internet, the ability to download pirated copies of games from various Internet sites and peer-to-peer networks, and the widespread proliferation of Internet cafes using pirated copies of our products all have contributed to an expansion in piracy. This could have a negative effect on our growth and profitability in the future.

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Our products are subject to the threat of piracy and unauthorized copying, and inadequate intellectual property laws and other protections could prevent us from enforcing or defending our proprietary technologies. We may also face legal risks arising out of user-generated content.

        We regard our software as proprietary and rely on a combination of copyright, patent, trademark and trade secret laws, employee and third-party nondisclosure agreements, and other methods to protect our proprietary rights. We own or license various copyrights, patents, and trademarks. We are aware that some unauthorized copying occurs, and if a significantly greater amount of unauthorized copying of our software products were to occur, it could cause material harm to our business and financial results.

        Policing unauthorized use of our products is difficult, and software piracy is a persistent problem, especially in certain countries. Further, the laws of some countries where our products are or may be distributed either do not protect our products and intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, or are poorly enforced. Legal protection of our rights may be ineffective in such countries. In addition, though we take steps to make the unauthorized copying and distribution of our products more difficult, as do the manufacturers of consoles on which the majority of our games are played, our efforts and those of the console manufacturers may not be successful in controlling the piracy of our products. Organized pirate operations have been expanding globally. In addition, the proliferation of technology designed to circumvent the protection measures used in our products, the availability of broadband access to the Internet, the ability to download pirated copies of our games from various Internet sites and peer-to-peer networks, and the widespread proliferation of Internet cafes using pirated copies of our products, all have contributed to an expansion in piracy. This could have a negative effect on our growth and profitability in the future.

        Moreover, as we leverage our software products using technologies such as the Internet and online services, and as user-generated content increases, our ability to protect our intellectual property rights and to avoid infringing intellectual property rights of others may diminish. We cannot be certain that existing intellectual property laws will provide adequate protection for our products in connection with these emerging technologies.

Our products are subject to the threat of piracy and unauthorized copying, and inadequate intellectual property laws and other protections could prevent
us from enforcing or defending our proprietary technologies. We may also face legal risks arising out of user-generated content.

        We regard our software as proprietary and rely on a combination of copyright, patent, trademark and trade secret laws, employee and third-party
nondisclosure agreements, and other methods to protect our proprietary rights. We own or license various copyrights, patents, and trademarks. We are aware that some unauthorized copying occurs, and if
a significantly greater amount of unauthorized copying of our software products were to occur, it could cause material harm to our business and financial results.

        Policing
unauthorized use of our products is difficult, and software piracy is a persistent problem, especially in certain countries. Further, the laws of some countries where our
products are or may be distributed either do not protect our products and intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, or are poorly enforced. Legal protection of
our rights may be ineffective in such countries. In addition, though we take steps to make the unauthorized copying and distribution of our products more difficult, as do the manufacturers of consoles
on which the majority of our games are played, our efforts and those of the console manufacturers may not be successful in controlling the piracy of our products. Organized pirate operations have been
expanding globally. In addition, the proliferation of technology designed to circumvent the protection measures used in our products, the availability of broadband access to the Internet, the ability
to download pirated copies of our games from various Internet sites and peer-to-peer networks, and the widespread proliferation of Internet cafes using pirated copies of our
products, all have contributed to an expansion in piracy. This could have a negative effect on our growth and profitability in the future.

        Moreover,
as we leverage our software products using technologies such as the Internet and online services, and as user-generated content increases, our ability to protect
our intellectual property rights and to avoid infringing intellectual property rights of others may diminish. We cannot be certain that existing intellectual property laws will provide adequate
protection for our products in connection with these emerging technologies.

We regard our software as proprietary and rely on a combination of copyright, patent, trademark and trade secret laws, employee and third-party nondisclosure agreements, and other methods to protect our proprietary rights. We own or license various copyrights, patents, and trademarks. We are aware that some unauthorized copying occurs within the interactive entertainment software industry, and if a significantly greater amount of unauthorized copying of our software products were to occur, it could cause material harm to our business and financial results.

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