eBay 2011 Annual Report Download - page 54

General Matters
Other third parties have from time to time claimed, and others may claim in the future, that we have infringed their intellectual property
rights. We are subject to patent disputes, and expect that we will increasingly be subject to additional patent infringement claims involving various
aspects of our Marketplaces, Payments and GSI businesses as our services continue to expand in scope and complexity. Such claims may be
brought directly against our companies and/or against our customers (who may be entitled to contractual indemnification under their contracts
with us), and we are subject to increased exposure to such claims as a result of our recent acquisitions, particularly in cases where we are entering
into new businesses in connection with such acquisitions. We have in the past been forced to litigate such claims. We may also become more
vulnerable to third-party claims as laws such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Lanham Act and the Communications Decency Act are
interpreted by the courts, and as we expand the range and geographical scope of our services and become subject to laws in jurisdictions where the
underlying laws with respect to the potential liability of online intermediaries like ourselves are either unclear or less favorable. We believe that
additional lawsuits alleging that we have violated patent, copyright or trademark laws will be filed against us. Intellectual property claims, whether
meritorious or not, are time consuming and costly to defend and resolve, could require expensive changes in our methods of doing business, or
could require us to enter into costly royalty or licensing agreements on unfavorable terms.
From time to time, we are involved in other disputes or regulatory inquiries that arise in the ordinary course of business, including suits by
our users (individually or as class actions) alleging, among other things, improper disclosure of our prices, rules or policies, that our prices, rules,
policies or customer/user agreements violate applicable law, or that we have not acted in conformity with such prices, rules, policies or
agreements. The number and significance of these disputes and inquiries are increasing. Any claims or regulatory actions against us, whether
meritorious or not, could be time consuming, result in costly litigation, damage awards (including statutory damages for certain causes of action in
certain jurisdictions), injunctive relief or increased costs of doing business through adverse judgment or settlement, require us to change our
business practices in expensive ways, require significant amounts of management time, result in the diversion of significant operational resources
or otherwise harm our business.
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