Company: CERO
Filing Date: 2025-04-15
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001213900-25-032134
Chunk: 1669

Company: CERO THERAPEUTICS HOLDINGS, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-04-15
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 1669
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 possible
that our pending patent applications will not result in granted patents, and even if such pending patent applications are granted as patents,
they may not provide a basis for intellectual property protection of commercially viable products nor provide us with any competitive
advantages. Further, it is possible that, for any of the patents that may be granted in the future, others will design around the patent
rights or identify cancer treatment methods that do not concern the rights covered by our patent rights or licenses. Further, we cannot
assure investors that other parties will not challenge any patents granted to us or that courts or regulatory agencies will hold our patents
to be valid or enforceable. We also cannot guarantee that we will be successful in defending challenges made against our patents. Any
successful third-party challenge to our patents could result in the unenforceability or invalidity of such patents, or to such patents
being interpreted narrowly or otherwise in a manner adverse to our interests. Our ability to establish or maintain a technological or
competitive advantage over our competitors may be diminished because of these uncertainties.

We may also rely on trade
secrets to protect our technology, especially where we do not believe patent protection is appropriate or feasible. However, trade secrets
are difficult to protect. Although we use reasonable efforts to protect our trade secrets, our employees, consultants, contractors, outside
scientific collaborators and other advisors may unintentionally or willfully disclose our information to competitors or other third parties.
Enforcing a claim that a third party illegally obtained and is using any of our trade secrets may be expensive and time consuming, and
the outcome is unpredictable. In addition, courts outside the United States are sometimes less willing to protect trade secrets. Moreover,
our competitors may independently develop equivalent knowledge, methods and know-how.

75

If we are unable to obtain and maintain
patent protection for any products we develop and for our technology, or if the scope of the patent protection obtained is not sufficiently
broad, our competitors could develop and commercialize products and technology similar or identical to ours, and our ability to commercialize
any product candidates we may develop and our technology may be adversely affected.

Our success depends in large
part on our ability to obtain and maintain patent protection in the United States and other countries with respect to our product candidates,
their respective components, formulations, combination therapies, methods used to manufacture them and methods of treatment and development
that are important to our business. If we do not adequately protect our intellectual property rights, competitors may be able to erode