Worldline - 2019 Universal Registration Document

WORLDLINE Research and development, Patents and Licenses

Research and development, Patents and Licenses C.12

Research and development C.12.1

The Worldline Group actively seeks to promote a culture of innovation designed to spur its employees to greater creativity and encourage the design and implementation of value creating projects. The Group’s Research and Development department is a key enabler of its capacity for innovation and improvement of its products and solutions, a critical strength in an industry that is constantly evolving. The Group’s research and development teams, which are managed centrally from its headquarters, comprise a dedicated team of research and development engineers spread throughout the countries in which the Group operates. Many of the Group’s research and development engineers are closely integrated within the Group’s operational The Group owns most of the intellectual property that it uses in connection with its activity. As a result, the Group is usually able to develop its own technological solutions and to provide its products and services to clients without depending on competitors or other third parties. The Group’s intellectual property rights comprise a combination of complementary rights, including: Rights relating to technology, such as: ● Know-how and trade secrets whose confidentiality is ● ensured by the Group’s internal policy as well as by contractual provisions that are binding on the persons or entities with access to such information, Software and information systems (which are protected ● by copyright) and databases. In accordance with the Group’s intellectual property policy, most of such software has been registered for copyright protection purposes, A portfolio of approximately 150 patents, filed in the ● geographic markets where the Group is most active, including Europe, the United States, Canada and India; Rights to distinctive marks such as trademarks or domain ● names, in particular those including the name “Worldline”, registered in all of the countries where the Group does business. These intellectual property rights are held either (i) by Worldline Luxembourg SA; or (ii) by the Group entity that developed the technology in question (which is the Company, for certain patents) or that uses the distinctive marks locally.

teams and focus primarily on incremental innovation, while other research and development engineers are focused on longer-term research and development projects dedicated to disruptive innovation. The Group’s dedicated research and development team supports a broader team of more than 4,500 engineers in the field working with clients to implement the Group’s services. The Group’s research and development expense amounted to € 97.6 million in 2019 and € 49.1 million The Group’s research and development activities are detailed in Section D.2.2 “Spur sustainable innovation" of the Group’s Extra-financial performance statement, presented in Section D. in 2018.

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Intellectual Property, Patents, License, Usage Rights, and Other C.12.2 Intangible Assets

Going forward, the Group will continue for filing trademarks and patents relating to the Group’s activity in accordance with the Group’s intellectual property policy applied by the Group with respect to its own research and development projects, the primary objectives of which are the following: (i) to identify the intellectual property developed by the Group’s entities; (ii) to evaluate their potential and optimize their usage; (iii) to determine the form of protection best suited to the Group’s activity (for example, filing a patent or protecting the confidentiality of a trade secret); (iv) where necessary, to bring legal action against infringers and defend actions brought against the Group; and (v) to ensure that the Group remains independent with regard to intellectual property and that the majority of the intellectual property used by the Group belongs to it. In general, the Group grants licenses to use its intellectual property only on a very limited basis and only where the services provided to its clients require so. Similarly, the Group has entered into only a few material license agreements relating to technology belonging to third parties, including: (i) certain simple or cross-licenses entered into between Group entities, on the one hand, and certain Atos group entities, on the other hand; and (ii) a patent cross-license agreement entered into between Worldline SA and IBM Corp., pursuant to which all the patents of IBM Corp. and its subsidiaries are licensed to the Worldline Group's entities, and the Worldline Group's patents, are, in return, licensed to IBM Corp. and its subsidiaries.

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Universal Registration Document 2019