Table of Contents delay in market acceptance of our products, harm to our brand, weakening of our competitive position or claims by customers for losses sustained by them. A disruption, infiltration or failure of our information technology systems, third-party cloud hosting platforms or end-user data services as a result of software or hardware malfunctions, system implementations or upgrades, computer viruses, cyber-attacks, third-party security breaches, employee/ human error, theft or misuse, malfeasance, power disruptions, natural disasters or accidents could cause breaches of data security, failure of our service, loss of intellectual property and critical data and the release and misappropriation of sensitive competitive information and partner, customer and employee personal data. We have been and may in the future be subject to fraud attempts from outside parties through our electronic systems (such as “phishing” e-mail communications to our finance, technical or other personnel), which could put us at risk for harm from fraud, theft or other loss if our internal controls do not operate as intended. Any such future events could further harm our competitive position, result in a loss of customer confidence, cause us to incur significant costs to remedy any damages and ultimately materially adversely affect our business and financial condition. Third parties may assert that we are infringing upon their intellectual property rights, which could divert management’s attention, cause us to incur significant costs, and prevent us from selling or using the technology to which such rights relate. Our competitors and other third parties hold numerous patents related to technology used in our industry, and claims of patent or other intellectual property right infringement or violation have been litigated against our competitors. We may also be subject to such claims and litigation. Regardless of their merit, responding to such claims can be time consuming, divert management’s attention and resources, and may cause us to incur significant expenses. While we believe that our products and technology do not infringe upon any intellectual property rights of third parties, we cannot be certain that we would be successful in defending against any such claims. Furthermore, patent applications in the United States and most other countries are confidential for a period of time before being published, so we cannot be certain that we are not infringing third parties’ patent rights or that we were the first to conceive or protect inventions covered by our patents or patent applications. An adverse outcome with respect to any intellectual property claim could invalidate our proprietary rights and force us to do one or more of the following: • obtain from a third-party claiming infringement a license to sell or use the relevant technology, which may not be available on reasonable terms, or at all; • stop manufacturing, selling, incorporating or using products that embody the asserted intellectual property; • pay substantial monetary damages; • indemnify our customers under some of our customer contracts; or • expend significant resources to redesign the products that use the infringing technology, or to develop or acquire non-infringing technology. Any of these actions could result in a substantial reduction in our revenue and could result in losses over an extended period of time. Our failure to obtain the right to use necessary third-party intellectual property rights on reasonable terms, or our failure to maintain, and comply with the terms and conditions applicable to these rights, could harm our business and prospects. We have licensed, and in the future we may choose or be required to license, technology or intellectual property from third parties in connection with the development and marketing of our products. We cannot assure you that such licenses will be available to us on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, and our inability to obtain such licenses could require us to substitute technology of lower quality or of greater cost. Further, such licenses may be non-exclusive, which could result in our competitors gaining access to the same intellectual property. The licensing or acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights is a competitive area, and other established companies may pursue strategies to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights that we may consider attractive or necessary. These established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, capital resources or greater development or commercialization capabilities. In addition, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to assign or license rights to us. We could encounter delays and incur significant costs, in product or service introductions while we attempt to develop alternative products or services, or redesign our products or services, to avoid infringing third-party patents or proprietary rights. Failure to obtain any such licenses or to develop a workaround could prevent us from Enphase Energy, Inc. | 2023 Form 10-K | 30