Company: TEM
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-025603
Chunk: 153

Company: Tempus AI, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 153
---
 them against third parties, and if these marks are registered by others, we could infringe or otherwise violate such trademarks. 

We may not be able to protect our rights to these trademarks, which we need to build name recognition among potential partners or customers in our markets of interest. At times, competitors or other third parties may adopt trademarks similar to ours, thereby impeding our ability to build brand identity and possibly leading to market confusion. In addition, there could be potential trademark infringement or other violation claims brought by owners of other registered trademarks or trademarks that incorporate variations of our registered or unregistered trademarks. Over the long term, if we are unable to establish name recognition based on our trademarks, then we may not be able to compete effectively and our business may be adversely affected. Our efforts to enforce or protect our proprietary rights related to trademarks may be ineffective and could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. 

We may be subject to claims challenging the inventorship or ownership of our owned or licensed intellectual property or claims asserting ownership of what we regard as our own intellectual property. 

While it is our policy to require our employees and contractors who may be involved in the conception or development of intellectual property to execute agreements assigning such intellectual property to us, we may be unsuccessful in executing such an agreement with each party who, in fact, conceives or develops intellectual property that we regard as our own. Moreover, even when we obtain agreements assigning intellectual property to us, the assignment of intellectual property rights may not be self-executing or the assignment agreements may be breached, and we may be forced to bring claims against third parties, or defend claims that they may bring against us, to determine the ownership of what we regard as our intellectual property. Furthermore, individuals executing agreements with us may have preexisting or competing obligations to a third party, such as an academic institution, and thus an agreement with us may be ineffective in perfecting ownership of inventions developed by that individual. Disputes about the ownership of intellectual property that we may own may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, former employees may refuse to assign certain intellectual property rights to us, even though we have agreements requiring them to do so. Our ability to enforce our contractual rights may require us to seek legal action, which could be costly and time-intensive. 

We or our licensors may be subject to claims that former employees, collaborators or other third parties