Yahoo 2015 Annual Report Download - page 15

• Digital, broadcast, and print media companies with which we compete for the attention of
consumer audiences and share of advertising dollars. This area has become increasingly
competitive as traditional media companies make the shift online to compete for users, users’
time, and advertising dollars across desktop and mobile.
• Advertising networks, exchanges, demand side and supply side platforms, and traditional media
companies, with which we compete for a share of advertisers’ marketing budgets and in the
development of the tools and systems for managing and optimizing advertising campaigns.
• Companies that provide analytics, monetization and marketing tools for mobile and desktop
developers.
• In a number of international markets, especially those in Asia, Europe, Middle East and Latin
America, we face substantial competition from local Internet service providers and other entities
that offer search, communications, and other commercial services and often have a competitive
advantage due to dominant market share in their territories, greater local brand recognition,
focus on a single market, familiarity with local tastes and preferences, or greater regulatory and
operational flexibility.
As we introduce new products and our existing products evolve, we may become subject to
additional competition.
We believe our principal competitive strengths relating to attracting users include the usefulness,
accessibility, integration, and personalization of the online services that we offer; the quality,
personalization, and presentation of our search results; and the overall user experience on our
premium properties. Our principal competitive strengths relating to attracting advertisers and
publishers are the reach, effectiveness, and efficiency of our marketing services as well as the
creativity of the marketing solutions that we offer.
Additional information regarding competition is included in Part I, Item 1A “Risk Factors” of this
Annual Report on Form 10-K and is incorporated herein by reference.
Intellectual Property
We create, own, and maintain a wide array of intellectual property assets that we believe are among
our most valuable assets. Our intellectual property assets include patents and patent applications
related to our innovations, products and services; trademarks related to our brands, products and
services; copyrights in software and creative content; trade secrets; and other intellectual property
rights and licenses of various kinds. We seek to protect our intellectual property assets through
patents, copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks and laws of the U.S. and other countries, and through
contractual provisions. We enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our
employees and contractors, and utilize non-disclosure agreements with third parties with whom we
conduct business in order to secure and protect our proprietary rights and to limit access to, and
disclosure of, our proprietary information. We consider the Yahoo! trademark and our many related
company brands to be among our most valuable assets, and we have registered these trademarks in
the U.S. and other countries throughout the world and actively seek to protect them. We have
licensed in the past, and expect that we may license in the future, certain of our technology and
proprietary rights, such as trademark, patent, copyright, and trade secret rights, to third parties.
Additional information regarding certain risks related to our intellectual property is included in Part I,
Item 1A “Risk Factors” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and is incorporated herein by reference.
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