Company: QLYS
Filing Date: 2025-02-21
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001107843-25-000009
Chunk: 25

Company: QUALYS, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-02-21
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 25
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4, we have 42 issued patents, which expire from 2029 to 2042, several pending U.S. patent applications and an exclusive license to four U.S. patents. The inbound license remains in effect until the licensed patents are no longer enforceable, unless the applicable license agreement is first terminated by us or terminated by the licensor for a breach of the agreement or if we undergo certain bankruptcy events. The licenses are currently exclusive and will remain exclusive so long as we make an appropriately-timed written election and pay an annual fixed royalty for ten years thereafter. These exclusive licenses are subject to the licensor’s reservation of certain rights in the patents and subject to the U.S. government’s reserved rights in the technology. We have a number of registered and unregistered trademarks. We require our employees, consultants and other third parties to enter into confidentiality and proprietary rights agreements and control access to software, documentation and other proprietary information. We view our trade secrets and know-how as a significant component of our intellectual property assets, as we have spent years designing and developing our cloud platform, which we believe differentiates us from our competitors.

We expect that software and other solutions in our industry may be subject to third-party infringement claims as the number of competitors grows and the functionality of products in different industry segments overlaps. Any of these third parties might make a claim of infringement against us at any time.

Human Capital Resources

We take a holistic approach to our human capital management strategy, striving to create a culture where talented people want to come to work, develop their careers, become leaders, and make a difference for all our stakeholders and communities. Doing the right thing for our people, our communities and our environment upholds the trust of our customers, partners, employees, and stockholders, enabling us to grow our business profitably and meet the diverse needs of our constituents. As of December 31, 2024, we had 2,400 full-time employees, including 1,144 in research and development, 474 in sales and marketing, 554 in operations and customer support, and 228 in general and administrative. As of December 31, 2024, approximately 77% of our employees were located outside of the United States, with 68% of our employees located in India. None of our U.S. employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements. Employees in certain European countries and Brazil have collective bargaining arrangements at the national level. We believe our employee relations are good, and we have not experienced any work stoppages.

Comp