Company: CNTB
Filing Date: 2025-03-31
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001835268-25-000014
Chunk: 157

Company: Connect Biopharma Holdings Ltd
Filing Date: 2025-03-31
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 157
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 third parties on commercially reasonable terms to secure exclusive rights. If any such challenges to inventorship or ownership were asserted, there is no assurance that a court would find in our favor or that, if we choose to seek a license, such license would be available to us on acceptable terms or at all. Moreover, we may be subject to a third-party submission of prior art to the USPTO challenging the priority of an invention claimed within one of our patents or patent 

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applications (which submissions may be made prior to a patent’s issuance) or otherwise become involved in pre- and post-issuance proceedings, including opposition, derivation, re-examination, revocation, inter partes review, post-grant review, interference or other proceedings challenging our patent rights or the patent rights of others from whom we have obtained licenses to such rights. For example, if we or a future licensor or other future collaborator initiate legal proceedings against a third party to enforce a patent covering one of our Product Candidates, the defendant could counterclaim that the patent covering our Product Candidate is invalid or unenforceable. An adverse determination in any such submission, proceeding or litigation could reduce the scope of, or invalidate, our patent rights, in whole or in part, allow third parties to commercialize our technology or products and compete directly with us, without payment to us, or result in our inability to manufacture, have manufactured, or commercialize products without infringing third-party patent rights.

Any loss of patent rights, loss of exclusivity or patent claims being narrowed, invalidated or held unenforceable, in whole or in part, could limit our ability to stop others from using or commercializing similar or identical technology and products, without payments to us, limit the duration of the patent protection of our current or any future Product Candidates, or result in our inability to manufacture, have manufactured, and commercialize our Product Candidates, which could materially and adversely impact our business. Proceedings relating to intellectual property also may result in substantial cost and require significant time from our scientists and management, even if the eventual outcome is favorable to us. In addition, if the breadth or strength of protection provided by our patents and patent applications or the patents and patent applications of our future licensors is threatened, regardless of the outcome, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to license, develop or commercialize our current or any future Product Candidates. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial conditions, results of operations and prospects.

The patent protection and