EMC 2006 Annual Report Download - page 10

Table of Contents
Seasonality
We generally experience the lowest demand for our products and services in the first quarter of the year and the greatest demand for our products and
services in the last quarter of the year.
Intellectual Property
We generally rely on patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws and contract rights to establish and maintain our proprietary rights in our
technology and products. While our intellectual property rights are important to our success, we believe that our business as a whole is not materially
dependent on any particular patent, trademark, license or other intellectual property right.
We have been granted or own by assignment approximately 1,390 patents issued by, and have more than approximately 1,500 patent applications
pending with, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, as well as a corresponding number of international patents and patent applications. While the duration of
our patents varies, we believe that the duration of our patents is adequate relative to the expected lives of our products.
We have used, registered or applied to register certain trademarks and copyrights in the United States and in other countries. We also license certain
technology from third parties for use in our products and processes and license some of our technologies to third parties.
Employees
As of December 31, 2006, we had approximately 31,100 employees worldwide. None of our domestic employees is represented by a labor union, and
we have never suffered an interruption of business as a result of a labor dispute. We consider our relations with our employees to be good.
Financial Information About Segments, Foreign and Domestic Operations and Export Sales
We operate in four business segments: Information storage, Content management and archiving, RSA information security and VMware virtual
infrastructure. Sales and marketing operations outside the United States are conducted through sales subsidiaries and branches located principally in Europe,
Latin America and the Asia Pacific region. We have five manufacturing facilities: two in Massachusetts, which manufacture storage products and security
products for the North American markets; two in Ireland, which manufacture storage products and security products for markets outside of North America;
and one in North Carolina, which manufactures storage products for worldwide markets. See Note Q to the Consolidated Financial Statements for information
about revenues by segment and geographic area.
Available Information
Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to reports filed pursuant to
Sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), are made available free of charge on or through our
website at www.emc.com as soon as reasonably practicable after such reports are filed with, or furnished to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the
"SEC"). Copies of our (i) Corporate Governance Guidelines, (ii) charters for the Audit Committee, Compensation Committee, Corporate Governance and
Nominating Committee, Mergers and Acquisitions Committee and Finance Committee and (iii) Business Conduct Guidelines (code of business conduct and
ethics) are available at www.emc.com/about/governance. Copies will be provided to any shareholder upon request. Please go to www.emc.com/ir to submit an
electronic request, or send a written request to EMC Investor Relations, 176 South Street, Hopkinton, MA 01748. None of the information posted on our
website is incorporated by reference into this Annual Report.
CEO Certification
An annual CEO Certification was submitted by our CEO to the New York Stock Exchange (the "NYSE") on May 26, 2006 in accordance with the
NYSE's listing standards.
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