diff --git a/include/drm/ttm/ttm_bo_api.h b/include/drm/ttm/ttm_bo_api.h
index 8f619f499e5506f04249f0511ea9e158d1634adb..de5f992de9284966e79420cc696941accfbe643d 100644
--- a/include/drm/ttm/ttm_bo_api.h
+++ b/include/drm/ttm/ttm_bo_api.h
@@ -463,7 +463,11 @@ size_t ttm_bo_dma_acc_size(struct ttm_bo_device *bdev,
  * As this object may be part of a larger structure, this function,
  * together with the @destroy function,
  * enables driver-specific objects derived from a ttm_buffer_object.
- * On successful return, the object kref and list_kref are set to 1.
+ *
+ * On successful return, the caller owns an object kref to @bo. The kref and
+ * list_kref are usually set to 1, but note that in some situations, other
+ * tasks may already be holding references to @bo as well.
+ *
  * If a failure occurs, the function will call the @destroy function, or
  * kfree() if @destroy is NULL. Thus, after a failure, dereferencing @bo is
  * illegal and will likely cause memory corruption.