Company: WHWK
Filing Date: 2025-01-31
Form Type: DEFM14A
Source: 0001193125-25-018470
Chunk: 425

Company: Whitehawk Therapeutics, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-01-31
Form: DEFM14A
Chunk 425
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 provide protection, costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to enforce and                                                                                                                                               
 determine the scope of our proprietary rights, and the outcome of such litigation would be uncertain. Moreover, any actions we may bring to enforce our intellectual property against our competitors could provoke them to bring counterclaims against 
 us;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |

| • |     | there may be significant pressure on the United States government and international governmental bodies to limit                                                                             
 the scope of patent protection both inside and outside the United States for disease treatments that prove successful, as a matter of public policy regarding worldwide health concerns; and |

| • |     | countries other than the United States may have patent laws less favorable to patentees than those upheld by                                    
 United States courts, allowing foreign competitors a better opportunity to create, develop and market competing products or product candidates. |

The patent prosecution process is also expensive, complex, and time-consuming, and we and 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 or in all jurisdictions where protection may be commercially advantageous. It is also possible that we and our licensors will fail to identify patentable aspects of our (or such licensor’s) research and development output before it is too late to obtain patent protection. If we are unable to obtain or maintain patent protection with respect to any of our proprietary products and technology we develop, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects could be materially harmed. In addition, although we enter into non-disclosureand confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to patentable aspects of our research and development output, such as our employees, outside scientific collaborators, CROs, third-party manufacturers, consultants, advisors and other third parties, any of these parties may breach such agreements and disclose such output before a patent application is filed, thereby jeopardizing our ability to seek patent protection. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such candidates are commercialized. As a result, our intellectual property may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing products similar or identical to our products. If the scope of any patent protection we obtain is not sufficiently broad, or if we lose any of our patent protection, our ability to prevent our competitors from commercializing similar or identical products or product candidates would be adversely affected. The patent position of biopharmaceutical companies generally is highly uncertain, involves complex legal and factual questions,