Table of Contents successful in defending these claims. For example, we have received correspondence from third parties asserting potential claims of trademark infringement with respect to some of our WE names and trademarks. We dispute these assertions. Additionally, we may not be able to enforce or defend our proprietary rights or prevent infringement or misappropriation without substantial expense to us and a significant diversion of management time and attention from our business strategy. We currently hold various domain names relating to our brand, most importantly wework.com, we.co, wegrow.com and welive.com, as well as several other @we and @wework social media handles. Competitors and others could attempt to capitalize on our brand recognition by using domain names or social media handles similar to those we hold. We may be unable, without significant cost or at all, to maintain or protect our use of domain names and social media handles or prevent third parties from acquiring domain names or social media handles that are similar to, infringe upon or otherwise decrease the value of our trademarks and other proprietary rights in our domain names. If the measures we have taken to protect our proprietary rights are inadequate to prevent unauthorized use or misappropriation by third parties or such rights are diminished or we are prevented from using intellectual property due to successful third-party challenges, the value of our brand and other intangible assets may be diminished and our business and results of operations may be adversely affected. We rely on a combination of proprietary and third-party technology systems to support our business and member experience, and, if these systems experience difficulties, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be materially adversely affected. We use a combination of proprietary technology and technology provided by third-party service providers to support our business and our member experience. For example, the WeWork app, which we developed in-house but which incorporates third-party and open source software where appropriate, connects local communities and develops and deepens connections among our members, both at particular spaces and across our global network. We also use technology of third-party service providers to help manage the daily operations of our business. For example, we rely on our own internal systems as well as those of third-party service providers to process membership payments and other payments from our members. To the extent we experience difficulties in the operation of technologies and systems we use to manage the daily operations of our business or that we make available to our members, our ability to operate our business, retain existing members and attract new members may be impaired. We may not be able to attract and retain sufficiently skilled and experienced technical or operations personnel and third-party contractors to operate and maintain these technologies and systems, and our current product and service offerings may not continue to be, and new product and service offerings may not be, supported by the applicable third-party service providers on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Moreover, we may be subject to claims by third parties who maintain that our service providers’ technology infringes the third party’s intellectual property rights. Although our agreements with our third-party service providers often contain indemnities in our favor with respect to these eventualities, we may not be indemnified for these claims or we may not be successful in obtaining indemnification to which we are entitled. Also, any harm to our members’ personal computers or other devices caused by our software, such as the WeWork app, or other sources of harm, such as hackers or computer viruses, could have an adverse effect on the member experience, our reputation and our results of operations and financial condition. If our proprietary information and/or data we collect and store, particularly billing and personal data, were to be accessed by unauthorized persons, our reputation, competitive advantage and relationships with our members could be harmed and our business could be materially adversely affected. We generate significant amounts of proprietary, sensitive and otherwise confidential information relating to our business and operations, and we collect, store and process confidential and personal data regarding our members, including member names and billing data. Our proprietary information and data is maintained on our own systems as well as the systems of third-party service providers. 32