Rapid technological change in our served markets requires us to rapidly develop new technically advanced products. Our future success depends in part on our ability to develop and offer new products with improved capabilities and to continue to enhance our existing products. If new products have reliability or quality problems, our performance may be impacted by reduced orders, higher manufacturing costs, delays in acceptance and payment for new products and additional service and warranty expenses.
Our business depends on the integrity of our intellectual property rights.
The success of our business depends upon the integrity of our intellectual property rights, and we cannot ensure that: (1) any of our pending or future patent applications will be allowed or that any of the allowed applications will be issued as patents or will issue with claims of the scope we sought; (2) any of our patents will not be invalidated, deemed unenforceable, circumvented or challenged; (3) the rights granted under our patents will provide competitive advantages to us; (4) other parties will not develop similar products, duplicate our products or design around our patents; or (5) our patent rights, intellectual property laws or our agreements will adequately protect our intellectual property or competitive position.
From time to time, we have received claims that we are infringing third parties’ intellectual property rights or seeking to invalidate our rights. We cannot ensure that third parties will not in the future claim that we have infringed current or future patents, trademarks or other proprietary rights relating to our products. Any claims, with or without merit, could be time-consuming, result in costly litigation, cause product shipment delays or require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements. Such royalty or licensing agreements, if required, may not be available on terms acceptable to us.
Risks Related to Government Regulation
We are subject to risks of non-compliance with environmental and other governmental regulations.
We are subject to a variety of governmental regulations relating to the use, storage, discharge, handling, emission, generation, manufacture, treatment and disposal of toxic or otherwise hazardous substances, chemicals, materials or waste. If we fail to comply with current or future regulations, such failure could result in suspension of our operations, alteration of our manufacturing process, remediation costs or substantial civil penalties or criminal fines against us or our officers, directors or employees. Additionally, these regulations could require us to acquire expensive remediation or abatement equipment and incur substantial expenses to comply with them.
In addition, climate change legislation is a significant topic of recent discussion and has generated and may continue to generate federal, international or other regulatory responses in the near future. If we or our suppliers, customers or partners fail to timely comply with applicable legislation, certain customers may refuse to purchase our products or we may face increased operating costs as a result of taxes, fines or penalties, or incur legal liability and reputational damage, which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
General Risk Factors
Global economic conditions may harm our industry, business and results of operations.
We operate globally and as a result our business, revenue and profitability are impacted by global macroeconomic conditions. The success of our activities is affected by general economic and market conditions, including, among others, inflation, interest rates, tax rates, economic uncertainty, political instability, changes in laws, and trade barriers and sanctions. Inflation and government efforts to combat inflation, such as raising the benchmark interest rate, have increased and could continue to increase market volatility and have an adverse effect on the financial market and global economy. Volatility and adverse conditions in the capital and credit markets have negatively affected levels of business and consumer spending, heightening concerns about the likelihood of a global recession and potential default of various national bonds and debt backed by individual countries. Such developments, as well as the politics impacting these, could adversely affect our financial results. Uncertainty about worldwide economic conditions poses a risk as businesses may further reduce or postpone spending in response to reduced budgets, tight credit, negative financial news and declines in income or asset values, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Geopolitical destabilization could continue to impact global currency exchange rates, commodity prices, trade and movement of resources, which may adversely affect the ability of our customers and potential customers to incur the capital expenditures necessary to purchase our products and services.
Our business could be negatively impacted by cyber and other security threats or disruptions.
We face various cyber and other security threats, including attempts to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information and networks. Although we utilize various procedures and controls to monitor and mitigate the risk of these threats, there can be no assurance that these procedures and controls will be sufficient. These threats could lead to losses of sensitive information or capabilities; financial liabilities and damage to our reputation. If we are unable to maintain compliance with security standards applicable to defense contractors, we could lose business or suffer reputational harm. Cyber
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