America Online 2011 Annual Report Download - page 14

Table of Contents
intellectual property rights of various kinds. These assets and rights, both in the United States and in other countries around the world, are, collectively, among
our most valuable assets. We rely on a combination of copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret and unfair competition laws as well as contractual provisions
to protect these assets. The duration and scope of the protection afforded to our intellectual property and other assets depends on the type of property in
question and the laws and regulations of the relevant jurisdiction. In the case of licenses, they also depend on contractual provisions. We consider the AOL
brand and our other brands to be some of our most valuable assets and these assets are protected by numerous trademark registrations in the United States and
globally. These registrations may generally be maintained in effect for as long as the brand is in use in the respective jurisdictions.
Competition
We compete for the time and attention of consumers with a wide range of internet companies, including Yahoo! Inc., Google Inc., Microsoft
Corporation's MSN, IAC/Interactive-Corp. and social networking companies such as Facebook, Inc. and Twitter, Inc., as well as traditional media companies
which are increasingly offering their own internet products and services. On the local level, we face increased competition from a wide range of companies
offering services and products for towns and communities, such as Yelp!
We compete for advertisers and publishers with a wide range of companies offering competing advertising products, technology and services,
aggregators of such advertising products, technology and services and demand side-platforms and other aggregators of third-party advertising inventory. We
also compete for talent in technology skills and content creation. In addition to those companies listed above, competitors include WPP plc (24/7 Real Media,
Inc.) and ValueClick, Inc. Competition among these companies has been intensifying and may lead to continuing decreases in prices for certain advertising
inventory as well as lower demand.
Our subscription access service competes with other internet access providers, especially broadband providers.
Internationally, our primary competitors are global enterprises such as Yahoo!, Google, MSN, IAC, Facebook and other social networking sites, as well
as a large number of local enterprises.
The internet industry is dynamic and rapidly evolving, and new and popular competitors, such as social networking sites, providers of communications
tools and providers of advertising services, frequently emerge.
Government Regulation and Other Regulatory Matters
Our business is subject to various federal and state laws and regulations, particularly in the areas of privacy, data security and consumer protection.
Laws and regulations applicable to our business include the following:
• The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, parts of which limit the liability of certain eligible online service providers for listing or linking
to third-party websites that include materials which infringe copyrights or other intellectual property rights of others.
• The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, which establishes requirements for those who send
commercial e-mail, sets forth penalties for e-mail "spammers" and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law and
gives consumers the right to ask e-mailers to stop spamming them.
• The Communications Decency Act of 1996, sections of which provide certain statutory protections to online service providers who distribute
third-party content.
10