Company: TRUE
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001327318-25-000006
Chunk: 120

Company: TrueCar, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 120
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 not conduct sufficient activities in such jurisdictions to maintain our rights over such trademarks, our ability to expand our business and our brand into new markets in the future could be harmed. From time to time, we have also been made aware of unauthorized uses of our intellectual property by parties we believe to be based in jurisdictions outside of the United States. It can be difficult or impossible to pursue any such infringement if such jurisdictions do not provide adequate intellectual property protections. 

We currently hold the “TrueCar.com” and “True.com” Internet domain names as well as various other related domain names. The regulation of domain names in the United States is subject to change. Regulatory bodies could establish additional top-level domains, appoint additional domain name registrars or modify the requirements for holding domain names. As a result, we may not be able to acquire or maintain all domain names that use the name “TrueCar.”

We are occasionally party to intellectual property disputes, which can be costly and could harm our business and operating results.

From time to time, we face allegations that we, or businesses we acquired or in which we invested, have infringed the trademarks, copyrights, patents or other intellectual property rights of third parties, including from our competitors or non-practicing entities. For example, in the second quarter of 2020, a Florida dealer sued us claiming that our “BUY SMARTER DRIVE HAPPIER” tagline, which is featured in some of our marketing materials, infringed its “BUY SMART BE HAPPY” trademark. Although this litigation was resolved without any effect on our business, if any similar litigation is brought and decided adversely to us, we could be required to change our tagline and replace the marketing materials in which it is featured, which would be costly and could damage our brand. Moreover, as discussed in greater detail under the risk factor “Failure to adequately protect our intellectual property could harm our business and operating results,” from time to time, we take legal action to protect our own intellectual property.

Patent and other intellectual property litigation may be protracted and expensive, and the results are difficult to predict and may require us to stop offering some features, purchase licenses or modify our products and features while we develop non-infringing substitutes or may result in significant settlement costs.

In addition, we use open-source software in our products and expect to use open-source software in the future. From time to time, we may face claims by companies that incorporate open-source software into their products, claiming ownership of, or demanding release of, the source code,