Company: PRTA
Filing Date: 2025-05-08
Form Type: 10-Q
Source: 0001559053-25-000023
Chunk: 97

Company: PROTHENA CORP PUBLIC LTD CO
Filing Date: 2025-05-08
Form: 10-Q
Item: Part II, Item 1A
Chunk 97
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 be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements.

Periodic maintenance fees on any issued patent are due to be paid to the USPTO and foreign patent agencies in several stages over the lifetime of the patent. The USPTO and various foreign governmental patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment, and other similar provisions during the patent application process. Although an inadvertent lapse, including due to the effect of geopolitical conflict on us or our patent maintenance vendors, can in many cases be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules, there are situations in which noncompliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. Noncompliance events that could result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application or invalidity of an issued patent include failure to respond to official actions within prescribed time limits, non-payment of fees, failure to properly legalize and submit formal documents, and failure to submit certain prior art. In any such event, our competitors might be able to enter the market, which would have a material adverse effect on our business.

The lives of our patents may not be sufficient to effectively protect our products and business.

Patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, if all maintenance fees are paid timely, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years after its first effective filing date. Although various extensions may be available, the life of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing, and regulatory review of new drug candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such drug candidates are commercialized. Even if patents covering our drug candidates are obtained, once a patent covering a drug candidate has expired, we may be open to competition, including biosimilar or generic medications. As a result, our patent portfolio may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing drug candidates similar or identical to ours. Our patents issued as of December 31, 2024, are anticipated to expire on dates ranging from 2025 to 2042, subject to any patent extensions that may be available for such patents. If patents are issued on our patent applications pending as of December 31, 2024, the resulting patents are projected to expire on dates ranging from 2025 to 2045. In addition, although upon issuance in the United States a patent’s life