Company: CERO
Filing Date: 2025-04-15
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001213900-25-032134
Chunk: 1666

Company: CERO THERAPEUTICS HOLDINGS, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-04-15
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 1666
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 any procured
intellectual property rights in our products could permit our competitors to manufacture their own version of our products. We have attempted
to protect our intellectual property rights in our products through a combination of patents, confidentiality agreements, non-compete
agreements and other contractual protection mechanisms, and we will continue to do so. While we intend to defend against threats to our
intellectual property, our patents or various contractual protections may not adequately protect our intellectual property. In addition,
we could be required to expend significant resources to defend our rights to proprietary information, and may not be successful in such
defense.

As such, we may not be successful
in preventing third parties from infringing, copying or misappropriating our intellectual property. There can also be no assurance that
pending patent applications owned by us will result in patents being issued to us, that patents issued to or licensed by us in the past
or in the future will not be challenged or circumvented by competitors or that such patents will be found to be valid or sufficiently
broad to protect our products or to provide us with any competitive advantage. Third parties could also obtain patents that may require
us to negotiate to obtain licenses to conduct our business, and any required licenses may not be available on reasonable terms or at all.
We also rely on confidentiality and non-compete agreements with certain employees, independent distributors, consultants and other parties
to protect, in part, trade secrets and other proprietary rights. There can be no assurance that these agreements will not be breached,
that we will have adequate remedies for any breach, that others will not independently develop substantially equivalent proprietary information
or that third parties will not otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or proprietary knowledge.

73

It is difficult and costly to protect our
proprietary rights, and we may not be able to ensure their protection. We cannot assure investors that any of the currently pending or
future patent applications will result in granted patents, nor can we predict how long it will take for such patents to be granted.

Our commercial success will
depend in part on us obtaining and maintaining patent protection and trade secret protection of our current and future product candidates,
as well as successfully defending these patents against third-party challenges. Our ability to stop third parties from making, using,
selling, offering to sell or importing our product candidates is dependent upon the extent to which we have rights under valid and enforceable
patents or trade secrets that cover these activities and the right under our licensed patents to contest alleged infringement.

The patent positions of bi