(b) No Award (prior to the time, if applicable, Shares are delivered in respect of such Award), and no right under any Award, may be assigned, alienated, pledged, attached, sold or otherwise transferred or encumbered by a grantee otherwise than by will or by the laws of descent and distribution (or in the case of Restricted Stock, to the Company) or pursuant to a QDRO, and any such purported assignment, alienation, pledge, attachment, sale, transfer or encumbrance shall be void and unenforceable against the Company or any Affiliate; provided that the designation of a beneficiary to receive benefits in the event of the grantee’s death shall not constitute an assignment, alienation, pledge, attachment, sale, transfer or encumbrance.
(c) Notwithstanding subsections (a) and (b) above, to the extent provided in the Award Certificate, Awards (other than Incentive Stock Options and corresponding Awards), may be transferred, without consideration, to a Permitted Transferee. For this purpose, a “Permitted Transferee” in respect of any grantee means any member of the Immediate Family of such grantee, any trust of which all of the primary beneficiaries are such grantee or members of his or her Immediate Family, or any partnership (including limited liability companies and similar entities) of which all of the partners or members are such grantee or members of his or her Immediate Family; and the “Immediate Family” of a grantee means the grantee’s spouse, any person sharing the grantee’s household (other than a tenant or employee), children, stepchildren, grandchildren, parents, stepparents, siblings, grandparents, nieces and nephews. Such Award may be exercised by such transferee in accordance with the terms of the Award Certificate.
(d) Nothing herein shall be construed as requiring the Company or any Affiliate to honor a QDRO except to the extent required under applicable law.
13.4. BENEFICIARIES. Notwithstanding Section 13.3, a Participant may, if permitted by the Committee and in the manner determined by the Committee, designate a beneficiary to exercise the rights of the Participant and to receive any distribution with respect to any Award upon the Participant’s death. A Permitted Transferee, beneficiary, legal guardian, legal representative, or other person claiming any rights under the Plan is subject to all terms and conditions of the Plan and any Award Certificate applicable to the Participant, except to the extent the Plan and Award Certificate otherwise provide, and to any additional restrictions deemed necessary or appropriate by the Committee. If no beneficiary has been designated or survives the Participant, any payment due to the Participant shall be made to the Participant’s estate. Subject to the foregoing, a beneficiary designation may be changed or revoked by a Participant, in the manner provided by the Company, at any time provided the change or revocation is filed with the Committee.
13.5. STOCK TRADING RESTRICTIONS. All Stock issuable under the Plan is subject to any stop-transfer orders and other restrictions as the Committee deems necessary or advisable to comply with federal or state securities laws, rules and regulations and the rules of any national securities exchange or automated quotation system on which the Stock is listed, quoted, or traded. The Committee may place legends on any Stock certificate or issue instructions to the transfer agent to reference restrictions applicable to the Stock.
13.6. MINIMUM VESTING REQUIREMENTS. Notwithstanding any other provision of the Plan to the contrary, equity-based Awards (or any portion thereof) granted under the Plan shall vest no earlier than the first anniversary of the date the Award is granted; provided, that the following Awards shall not be subject to the foregoing minimum vesting requirement: any (i) substitute Awards granted pursuant to Section 13.11, (ii) Awards to Non-Employee Directors that vest on the earlier of the one-year anniversary of the date of grant and the date of the next annual meeting of shareholders after the immediately preceding year’s annual meeting (provided that the period between annual meetings is not less than 50 weeks), and (iii) any additional Awards the Committee may grant, up to a maximum of five percent (5%) of the available share reserve authorized for issuance under the Plan pursuant to Section 5.1 (subject to adjustment under Section 14.1). For the avoidance of doubt, this Section 13.6 does not apply to the Committee’s discretion to provide for accelerated exercisability or vesting of any Award, including in cases of retirement, death, Disability or a Change in Control, in the terms of the Award Certificate or otherwise.
13.7. ACCELERATION UPON DEATH, DISABILITY. Except as otherwise provided in the Award Certificate or any special Plan document governing an Award, upon the termination of a person’s Continuous Service by reason of death or Disability:
(i) all of that Participant’s outstanding Options and SARs shall become fully exercisable, and shall thereafter remain exercisable for a period of one (1) year or until the earlier expiration of the original term of the Option or SAR;
(ii) all time-based vesting restrictions on that Participant’s outstanding Awards shall lapse as of the date of termination; and
(iii) the payout opportunities attainable under all of that Participant’s outstanding performance-based Awards shall be deemed to have been fully earned as of the date of termination as follows:
(A) if the date of termination occurs during the first half of the applicable performance period, all relevant performance goals will be deemed to have been achieved at the “target” level, and
(B) if the date of termination occurs during the second half of the applicable performance period, the actual level of achievement of all relevant performance goals against target will be measured as of the end of the calendar quarter immediately preceding the date of termination, and
(C) in either such case, there shall be a prorata payout to the Participant or his or her estate within sixty (60) days following the date of termination (unless a later date is required by Section 16.3 hereof), based upon the length of time within the performance period that has elapsed prior to the date of termination.