Any inability to obtain, preserve, enforce, defend and protect our technologies, intellectual property rights and third-party licenses could harm our competitive position.
Our ability to compete successfully and to achieve future growth depends in part on the continued strength of our intellectual property portfolio. While we actively enforce and protect our intellectual property rights, there can be no assurance that our efforts will be adequate to prevent the misappropriation or improper use of our proprietary technologies, software, trade secrets or know-how. Also, we cannot assure you that, as our business or business models expand into new areas, we will be able to develop independently the technologies, patents, software, trade secrets or know-how necessary to conduct our business or that we can do so without unknowingly infringing the intellectual property rights of others. As a result, we may have to rely on, to a certain degree, licensed technologies and patent licenses from others. To the extent that we rely on licenses from others, there can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain any or all of the necessary licenses in the future on terms we consider reasonable or at all. The lack of necessary licenses could expose us to claims for damages and/or injunctions from third parties, as well as claims for indemnification by our customers in instances where we have contractually agreed to indemnify our customers against damages resulting from infringement claims.
We have received, from time to time, communications from third parties, including non-practicing entities and semiconductor companies, asserting that our technologies, our manufacturing processes, or the design IPs of the semiconductors made by us or the use of those semiconductors by our customers may infringe their patents or other intellectual property rights. Because of the nature of the industry, our market position, and the expansion of our manufacturing operations outside of Taiwan, we may receive an increased number of such communications in the future. The assertions made and lawsuits initiated by litigious, well-funded, non-practicing entities are particularly aggressive in their monetary demand and in seeking court-issued injunctions. Such lawsuits and assertions may increase our cost of doing business and may potentially be extremely disruptive if these asserting entities succeed in blocking the trade of products made and services offered by us. See “Item 8. Financial Information – Legal Proceedings” for a further discussion. Also, with the expansion of our manufacturing operations into certain non-R.O.C jurisdictions, we have faced increased challenges in managing risks of intellectual property misappropriation. Despite our efforts to adopt robust measures to mitigate the risk of intellectual property misappropriation in such new jurisdictions, we cannot guarantee that the protection measures we adopted will be sufficient to prevent us from potential infringements by others, or at all.
If we fail to obtain or maintain certain technologies or intellectual property licenses or fail to prevent our intellectual property from being misappropriated and, if litigation relating to alleged intellectual property matters occurs, it could: (i) prevent us from manufacturing particular products or selling particular services or applying particular technologies; and (ii) reduce our ability to compete effectively against entities benefiting from our misappropriated intellectual property, which could reduce our opportunities to generate revenue.
Our operational results could also be materially and adversely affected by disruptive events, such as earthquakes and droughts, or by industrial accidents, in the locations in which we, our customers or our suppliers operate.
Disruptions caused by natural and man-made disasters, including earthquakes, flooding, typhoons, droughts, tsunamis, sandstorms, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, fire, gas/chemical leakage, pandemic, cyber-attacks, sabotage, failure of critical facilities and equipment, shortages in the supply of utilities, such as water, electricity and natural gas, etc., could interrupt our operations. Most of our production facilities, as well as those of many of our suppliers, customers and upstream providers of complementary semiconductor manufacturing services, are located in areas susceptible to natural disasters and may face potential shortages of electricity or water, which could cause interruptions to our operations.
Thus, if one or more natural disasters result in a prolonged disruption to our operations or those of our customers or suppliers, or if any of our fabs or vendor facilities were to be damaged or cease operations as a result of an unforeseen disruptive event, it could reduce our manufacturing capacity and cause the loss of important customers, and thereby have an adverse, material impact on our operational and financial performance.
Our operation may be interrupted, and our expansion may be limited, by power or other utility shortages.
We have occasionally suffered power outages, dips or surges caused by difficulties encountered by our electricity supplier or other power consumers on the same power grid. Some of these have resulted in interruptions to our operations. Such shortages or interruptions in electricity supply could further be exacerbated by changes in the energy policy of the governments. If we are unable to secure reliable and uninterrupted supply of electricity to power our manufacturing fabs, our ability to fill customers’ orders would be jeopardized.
In addition, severe weather events, such as droughts, and any measures taken by governments in response to such severe weather events, may materially affect our operations. For further information, see “— Our operational results could also be materially and adversely affected by disruptive events, such as earthquakes and droughts, or by industrial accidents, in the locations in which we, our customers or our suppliers operate.”
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