Company: TEM
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-025603
Chunk: 159

Company: Tempus AI, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 159
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 other requirements imposed by governmental patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements. 

Periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees and various other governmental fees on patents and/or applications and trademarks and trademark applications will be due to be paid to the USPTO and various governmental patent agencies outside of the United States at several stages over the lifetime of the patents and/or applications and trademarks and trademark applications. We have systems in place to remind us to pay these fees, and we rely on our outside counsel to pay these fees due to U.S. and non-U.S. patent and trademark agencies. The USPTO and various foreign governmental patent and trademark agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment and other similar requirements during the patent and trademark application processes. In many cases, an inadvertent lapse can be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules. However, there are situations in which non-compliance can result in abandonment or forfeiture of the patent or patent application or trademark or trademark application and thus the partial or complete loss of patent or trademark rights in the relevant jurisdiction. Such an event would allow our competitors to enter the unprotected market and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. 

Patent terms may be inadequate to protect our competitive position for an adequate amount of time. 

Patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, if all maintenance fees are timely paid, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years from its earliest U.S. non-provisional filing date. Various extensions may be available, but the life of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited. Even if patents covering our Platform or products are obtained, once the patent life has expired, we may be open to competition. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of our new products, patents protecting them might expire before or shortly after they are commercialized. As a result, our owned and licensed patent portfolio may not provide us with a sufficient exclusivity period to exclude others from commercializing products similar or identical to ours. 

Intellectual property rights do not necessarily address all potential threats. 

The degree of future protection afforded by our intellectual property rights is uncertain because intellectual property rights have limitations, and may not adequately protect our business or permit us to maintain our competitive advantage. For example: 

•others may be able to make products that are similar to ours