PRSS 2017 Annual Report

20 While we have never been subject to a product recall, there can be no guarantee that we will not face one in the future and the costs associated with such a recall may be substantial. Recently enacted legislation has given the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission increased regulatory and enforcement power, particularly with regard to children’s safety, among other areas. As a result, companies such as ours may be subject to more product recalls and incur higher recall-related expenses. Any recalls or other safety issues could harm our business and operating results. Our failure to protect our intellectual property rights may undermine our competitive position, and litigation to protect our intellectual property rights or defend against third-party allegations of infringement may be costly and time-consuming. Protection of our proprietary technology is critical to our business. Failure to protect and monitor the use of our existing intellectual property rights could result in the loss of valuable technologies and prevent us from maintaining a leading market position. We rely primarily on patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights and other contractual restrictions to protect our intellectual property. As of December 31, 2017, we had seven issued patents and one patent pending in the United States, which relate to our e-commerce services, and our proprietary printing and decorating services. We may have, on occasion, disclosed inventions prior to making the relevant filings, which may make our patent applications and any resulting issued patents vulnerable to validity challenges. Our pending patent applications may not result in issued patents, or if patents are issued to us, such patents may not provide meaningful protection against competitors or against competitive technologies. We also rely upon certain unpatented proprietary manufacturing expertise and modeling methods and designs, licensed third-party technologies, continuing technological innovation and other trade secrets to develop and maintain our competitive position. While we enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and third parties to protect our intellectual property, certain confidentiality and invention assignment agreements may be limited in duration or deemed by a court to be unenforceable. Moreover, these confidentiality and invention assignment agreements could be breached, potentially in ways that we may not immediately detect, and thus may not provide meaningful protection for our trade secrets or proprietary manufacturing expertise. Adequate remedies may not be available in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure of our trade secrets and manufacturing expertise. In addition, others may obtain knowledge of our trade secrets through independent development or legal means. The failure of our patents or confidentiality agreements to protect our processes, equipment, technology, trade secrets and proprietary manufacturing expertise, methods of system design, other methods and materials could have a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, effective patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret protection may be unavailable or limited in some foreign countries. In some countries where we operate, we have not applied for patent, trademark or copyright protection. Third parties may infringe or misappropriate our proprietary technologies or other intellectual property rights, which could harm our business, financial condition or operating results. Policing unauthorized use of proprietary technology can be difficult and expensive and potentially subjects our intellectual property rights to validity and enforceability challenges. Also, litigation may be necessary to enforce our intellectual property rights, protect our trade secrets or determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. We cannot assure you that the outcome of such potential litigation will be in our favor. Such litigation may be costly and time-consuming and may divert management attention and other resources away from our business. An adverse determination in any such litigationwill impair our intellectual property rights andmay harmour business, prospects and reputation. We may face infringement or misappropriation claims by third parties, which, if determined adversely to us, could cause us to pay significant damage awards or prohibit us from conducting our business. Our success depends largely on our ability to use and develop our technology and know-howwithout infringing or misappropriating the intellectual property rights of third parties. The validity and scope of claims relating to business process patents involve complex scientific, legal and factual questions and analysis and, therefore, may be highly uncertain. We have been and may continue to be subject to litigation involving claims of patent infringement or violation of intellectual property rights of third parties, including allegations of patent infringement asserted by patent holding companies or other adverse patent owners who have no relevant product revenue and against whom our own patents may therefore provide little or no deterrence. E-commerce companies and divisions have been particularly the target of speculative patent infringement claims in recent years. The defense and prosecution of intellectual property suits, patent opposition proceedings and related legal and administrative proceedings can be both costly and time-consuming andmay significantlydivert the efforts and resources of our technical andmanagement personnel. An adverse determination in any such litigation or proceedings to which we may become a party could subject us to significant liability to third parties, require us to seek licenses from third parties, which may not be available on reasonable terms, or at all, pay ongoing royalties, or subject us to injunctions prohibiting the use of our technologies. Protracted litigation could also result in our customers or potential partner customers of our products or services deferring, limiting or ceasing their purchase or use of our website services until resolution of such litigation.