Company: FTCI
Filing Date: 2025-03-31
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-047224
Chunk: 55

Company: FTC Solar, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-31
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 55
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, and may cause us to incur significant expenses in litigation or settlement. While we believe that our products and services do not infringe in any material respect upon any valid intellectual property rights of third parties, we may not be successful in defending against any such claims. If we do not successfully defend or settle an intellectual property claim, we could be liable for significant monetary damages and could be prohibited from continuing to use certain technology, business methods, content or brands, could be prohibited from continuing to sell certain products or services, or could be required to license such intellectual property from the applicable third party, which could require us to pay significant royalties, increasing our operating expenses. Even if we do reach a settlement agreement to resolve an intellectual property claim, such settlement agreement could also result in our making a significant monetary payment or paying significant royalties. If a license is not available at all or not available on reasonable terms, we may be required to develop or license a non-infringing alternative, either of which could require significant effort and expense. If we cannot license or develop a non-infringing alternative, we would be forced to limit or stop sales of our offerings and may be unable to effectively compete. Any of these results would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We use “open-source” software, and any failure to comply with the terms of one or more open-source licenses could negatively affect our business.

Our products and services use certain software licensed by its authors or other third parties under so-called “open-source” licenses. Some of these open-source licenses may contain requirements that we make available source code for modifications or derivative works that we create based upon the open-source software, and that we license such modifications or derivative works under the terms of a particular open-source license or other license granting third parties rights with respect to such software. In certain circumstances, if we combine our proprietary software with certain open-source software, we could be required to release the source code for such proprietary software. Additionally, to the extent that we do not comply with the terms of the open-source licenses to which we are subject, or such terms are interpreted by a court in a manner different than our own interpretation of such terms, then we may be required to disclose certain of our proprietary software or take other actions that could negatively impact our business. Further, the use of open-source software can lead to vulnerabilities that may make our software susceptible 

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to attack, and open-source licenses generally do not provide warranties or controls on the origin of the software. While we attempt to