Company: OCEA
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001641172-25-003155
Chunk: 2210

Company: Ocean Biomedical, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 2210
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 and commercialize
products and technology similar or identical to ours, and our ability to commercialize any product candidates we may develop may be adversely
affected.

The
patenting process is expensive and time-consuming, and we or our licensors may not be able to file and prosecute all necessary or desirable
patent applications at a reasonable cost or in a timely manner. In addition, we or our licensors may not pursue, obtain, or maintain
patent protection in all relevant markets. It is also possible that we will fail to identify patentable aspects of our research and development
output before it is too late to obtain patent protection. Moreover, in some circumstances, we may not have the right to control the preparation,
filing and prosecution of patent applications, or to maintain the patents, covering technology that we license or sublicense from or
license to third parties and are reliant on our licensors, sublicensors or licensees.

The
strength of patents in the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical field involves complex legal and scientific questions and can be uncertain.
The patent applications that we in-license or may own in the future may fail to result in issued patents with claims that cover our product
candidates or uses thereof in the United States or in other foreign countries. Even if the patents do successfully issue, third parties
may challenge the validity, enforceability or scope thereof, which may result in such patents being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable.
Furthermore, even if they are unchallenged, our patents and patent applications may not adequately protect our technology, including
our product candidates, or prevent others from designing around our claims. If the breadth or strength of protection provided by the
patent applications we hold with respect to our product candidates is threatened, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with
us to develop, and threaten our ability to commercialize, our product candidates. Further, if we encounter delays in our clinical trials,
the period of time during which we could market our product candidates under patent protection would be reduced.

We
cannot be certain that we were the first to file any patent application related to our technology, including our product candidates,
and, if we were not, we may be precluded from obtaining patent protection for our technology, including our product candidates.

We
cannot be certain that we are the first to invent the inventions covered by pending patent applications and, if we are not, we may be
subject to priority disputes. Furthermore, for United States applications in which all claims are entitled to a priority date before