Company: VCYT
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001384101-25-000014
Chunk: 103

Company: VERACYTE, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 103
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 for us to enforce our patent and proprietary rights or to determine the scope, coverage, and validity of the intellectual property and proprietary rights of others. We may in the future initiate or become involved in legal proceedings against a third party to enforce a patent covering their tests, products or services. The outcome of such lawsuits, as well as any other litigation or proceeding, is inherently uncertain and might not be favorable to us. In addition, if we resort to legal proceedings to enforce our intellectual property rights or to determine the validity, scope, and coverage of the intellectual property or other proprietary rights of others, the proceedings may be burdensome and expensive, even if we were to prevail. Any litigation that may be necessary in the future may result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and may have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results or financial condition.

Additionally, our patents may be challenged by third parties, and we may not be successful in defending any challenges made against our patents or patent applications. Any successful third-party challenge to our patents may result in the unenforceability or invalidity of such patents.  If we do not prevail in such proceedings, we may lose significant intellectual property protection for our tests, products or services, such that competitors could copy our tests, products or services.

We might not have been the first to make the inventions covered by each of our pending patent applications, and we might not have been the first to file patent applications for these inventions. To determine the priority of these inventions, we may have to participate in interference proceedings, derivation proceedings, or other post-grant proceedings at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or similar proceedings in patent offices outside of the United States, that could result in substantial cost to us. The outcome of such proceedings can be difficult to predict. No assurance can be given that other patent applications will not have priority over our patent applications. In addition, the patent laws of the United States allow for various post-grant opposition proceedings, and their outcome can be difficult to predict. Furthermore, if third parties bring these proceedings against our patents, we may experience significant costs and management distraction defending our patents.

If we cannot license or maintain rights to use technologies on reasonable terms, our business may suffer. 

We license third-party technology in our existing tests, products and services, and in the future, we may continue to license third-party technology to develop or commercialize new tests, products or services. In return for the use of a third-

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party’s technology, we often agree to