Company: APM
Filing Date: 2025-04-30
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001213900-25-037669
Chunk: 33

Company: Aptorum Group Ltd
Filing Date: 2025-04-30
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 3
Chunk 33
---
curring substances
are not patentable. Although we do not believe that any of the patents owned or licensed by us will be found invalid based on this decision,
future decisions by the courts, the U. S. Congress or the USPTO may impact the value of our patent rights. There could be similar changes
in the laws of foreign jurisdictions that may impact the value of our patent rights or our other IP rights.

In addition, recent patent
reform legislation in the U. S., including the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, or the America Invents Act, could increase those uncertainties
and costs. The America Invents Act was signed into law on September 16, 2011, and many of the substantive changes became effective
on March 16, 2013. The America Invents Act reforms U. S. patent law in part by changing the U. S. patent system from a “first
to invent” system to a “first inventor to file” system, expanding the definition of prior art, and developing a post-grant
review system, thus changing the U. S. patent law in a way that may weaken our ability to obtain patent protection in the U. S. for those
applications filed after March 16, 2013. Further, the America Invents Act created new procedures to challenge the validity of issued
patents in the U. S., including post-grant review and interpartes review proceedings, which some other parties have
been using to cause the cancellation of selected or all claims of issued patents of competitors. For a patent with an effective filing
date of March 16, 2013 or later, a petition for post-grant review can be filed by another party in a nine-month window from issuance
of the patent. A petition for inter partesreview can be filed immediately following the issuance of a patent if the
patent has an effective filing date prior to March 16, 2013. A petition for inter partesreview can be filed after
the nine-month-period for filing a post-grant review petition has expired for a patent with an effective filing date of March 16,
2013 or later. Post-grant review proceedings can be brought on any ground of invalidity, whereas inter partesreview
proceedings can only raise an invalidity challenge based on published prior art and patents. These adversarial actions at the USPTO review
patent claims without the presumption of validity afforded to U. S. patents in lawsuits in