which compete are highly competitive and many of our competitors have greater resources than we have, we cannot be certain that our products will compete favorably in the market place in Item 3
above.
Seasonality
See Risk
Factors Because our operating results for any period could be adversely affected by a number of factors and therefore fluctuate significantly, our annual and quarterly operating results are difficult to predict in Item 3 above and
Operating and Financial Review and Prospects Principal Factors Affecting Our Results of Operations in Item 5 below.
Intellectual Property
Our success and
future revenue growth depends, in part, on our ability to protect our intellectual property. We rely on a portfolio of intellectual property rights, registered in the United States, Taiwan, and other countries, including patents, copyrights,
trademark registrations, trade secret laws, contractual provisions, licenses, and other methods to protect our intellectual property.
As
of March 31, 2019, we have 1,456 patents and 1,281 pending applications worldwide. There can be no assurance that patents will ever be issued with respect to these pending applications. Furthermore, it is possible that any patents held by
us may be invalidated, circumvented, challenged or licensed to others. In addition, there can be no assurance that such patents will provide us with competitive advantages or adequately safeguard our proprietary rights. While we continue to file new
patent applications with respect to our recent developments, existing patents are granted for prescribed time periods and will expire at various times in the future. We expect to continue to file patent applications where appropriate to protect our
proprietary technologies.
Companies in the semiconductor industry have frequently demonstrated a readiness to commence litigation based
on allegations of patent and other intellectual property infringement. From time to time, third parties may assert infringement claims against us. We may not prevail in any such litigation or may not be able to license patents from third parties on
commercially reasonable terms, if at all. Litigation, regardless of the outcome, is likely to result in substantial cost and diversion of our resources, including our managements time. Any such litigation could materially adversely affect us.
In addition, in the contracts under which we sell semiconductor products, we may have agreed to indemnify our customers against losses arising out of claims of unauthorized use of intellectual property.
We intend to protect our intellectual property rights vigorously, but there can be no assurance that our efforts will be successful. In
addition, the laws of other countries in which our products are sold may not protect our products and intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States.
While our ability to effectively compete depends in large part on our ability to protect our intellectual property, we believe that our
technical expertise, customer support capabilities, and ability to introduce new products in a timely and cost effective manner will be important factors in maintaining our competitive position.
We claim copyright and trademark protection for proprietary documentation for our products and a variety of branding marks. We have registered
Silicon Motion and its logo (a three-dimensional cube depiction of the letters SM), FCI, the FCI logo, the Shannon Systems logo, PCIe-RAID,
DIRECT-IO,
Hyper-IO,
airRF, basicRF, ezRF, ezSYS, powerRF, twinRF, zipRF, zipSYS, VirtualZero,
SSDLifeGuard, SSDLifeSaver, TurboMLC, FerriSSD, Ferri-eMMC, Bigtera, the Bigtera logo, and NANDXtend as trademarks in the United States, Taiwan, and other countries.
We also attempt to protect our trade secrets and other proprietary information through agreements with our customers, suppliers,
employees and consultants, and through other customary security measures.
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