Company: KROS
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001664710-25-000018
Chunk: 266

Company: Keros Therapeutics, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 266
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 product discovery and development efforts. 

Our commercial success depends in part on our ability to develop, manufacture, market and sell our product candidates and use our proprietary technologies without infringing the proprietary rights of third parties. There is a substantial amount of litigation involving patents and other intellectual property rights in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, as well as administrative proceedings for challenging patents, including interference, derivation, inter partes review, post grant review, and reexamination proceedings before the USPTO or oppositions and other comparable proceedings in foreign jurisdictions. We may be exposed to, or threatened with, future litigation by third parties having patent or other intellectual property rights alleging that our product candidates and/or proprietary technologies infringe their intellectual property rights. Numerous U.S. and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications, which are owned by third parties, exist in the fields in which we are developing our product candidates. There may be third-party patents or patent applications with claims to materials, formulations, methods of manufacture or methods for treatment related to our product candidates and programs. As the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries expand and more patents are issued, the risk increases that our product candidates may give rise to claims of infringement of the patent rights of others. Moreover, it is not always clear to industry participants, including us, which patents cover various types of drugs, products or their methods of use or manufacture. Thus, because of the large number of patents issued and patent applications filed in our fields, there may be a risk that third parties may allege they have patent rights encompassing our product candidates, technologies or methods.  We are aware of issued patents, in the United States and abroad, relating to methods of treating patients with PAH and methods of treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy. If any such patent were to be asserted against us, we believe that we have defenses against any such action, including that these patents would not be infringed by our product candidates and/or that these patents are not valid. However, if these patents were asserted against us and our defenses to such an action were unsuccessful, unless we obtain a license to these patents, which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, we could be liable for damages and precluded from commercializing cibotercept or KER-065, as applicable, in certain indications, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, cash flows or results of operations.

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If a third-party claims that we infringe its intellectual property rights, we may face a number of issues, including