Yahoo 2004 Annual Report Download - page 17

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PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
We continually enhance existing, and develop new, products and services to meet evolving consumer demand for
technological innovation. Our engineering and production teams are primarily located in our Sunnyvale, California
headquarters and in Pasadena, California, Dallas, Texas and Bangalore, India. Locally-based teams handle most interna-
tional product development and engineering. We have developed internally, acquired or licensed the products and services
we offer. Product development expenses totaled approximately $142 million, $207 million and $369 million, respectively
for 2002, 2003 and 2004.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
We regard our copyrights, patents, trademarks, domain names and similar intellectual property as important to Yahoo!’s
brand and success. We seek to protect our intellectual property through patent, copyright, trade secret and trademark law
and through contractual provisions. We enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employ-
ees and contractors, and non-disclosure agreements with third parties with whom we conduct business in order to limit
access to, and disclosure of, our proprietary information. We consider the Yahoo! trademark and our many related
trademarks to be among our most valuable assets and we have registered these trademarks in the United States and other
countries throughout the world and aggressively seek to protect them. We also hold patents and have registered a number
of other trademarks, domain names, and copyrights in the United States and internationally, and have pending patent
applications to protect our proprietary rights. We have licensed in the past, and expect that we may license in the future,
certain of our proprietary rights, such as trademarks, patents, technologies or copyrighted materials, to third parties.
EMPLOYEES
As of December 31, 2004, we had approximately 7,600 full-time employees. Our future success is substantially depen-
dent on the performance of our senior management and key technical personnel, and our continuing ability to attract
and retain highly qualified technical and managerial personnel. See the ‘‘Risk Factors’’ section below for a further
discussion of certain risks related to our employees.
AVAILABLE INFORMATION
Our website is located at http://www.yahoo.com. We make available free of charge, on or through our website, our
annual, quarterly and current reports, and any amendments to those reports, as soon as reasonably practicable after
electronically filing such reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (‘‘SEC’’). Information contained on
Yahoo!’s Website is not part of this report or any other report filed with the SEC. The public may read and copy any
materials filed by the Company with the SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 450 Fifth Street, NW, Washington,
DC 20549. The public may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at
1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other
information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at http://www.sec.gov.
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