Company: OCEA
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001641172-25-003155
Chunk: 2633

Company: Ocean Biomedical, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 2633
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 patent prosecution and additional
procedures to attack the validity of a patent by USPTO administered post-grant proceedings, including post-grant review, inter partes
review, and derivation proceedings. Because of a lower evidentiary standard in USPTO proceedings compared to the evidentiary standard
in United States federal courts necessary to invalidate a patent claim, a third party could potentially provide evidence in a USPTO proceeding
sufficient for the USPTO to hold a claim invalid even though the same evidence would be insufficient to invalidate the claim if first
presented in a district court action. Accordingly, a third party may attempt to use the USPTO procedures to invalidate our patent claims
that would not have been invalidated if first challenged by the third party as a defendant in a district court action. Therefore, the
America Invents Act and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our owned or in-licensed
patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our owned or in-licensed issued patents, all of which could have a material adverse
effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

In
addition, the patent positions of companies in the development and commercialization of biopharmaceuticals are particularly uncertain.
Recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings have narrowed the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances and weakened the rights
of patent owners in certain situations. This combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the validity and enforceability
of patents, once obtained. Depending on future actions by the U.S. Congress, the federal courts, and the USPTO, the laws and regulations
governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that could have a material adverse effect on our existing patent portfolio and our
ability to protect and enforce our intellectual property in the future.

We
have limited foreign intellectual property rights and may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world.

We
have limited intellectual property rights outside the United States. Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on product candidates
in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and our intellectual property rights in some countries outside
the United States can be less extensive than those in the United States. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect
intellectual property rights to the same extent as federal and state laws in the United States. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent
third parties from practicing our inventions in all countries outside the United States, or from