Company: CRVO
Filing Date: 2025-03-17
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001437749-25-007829
Chunk: 71

Company: CervoMed Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-17
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 71
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 in scope. In addition, a court may hold that a third-party is entitled to certain patent ownership rights instead of the Company.

As a result of patent infringement claims, or in order to avoid potential infringement claims, the Company may choose to seek, or be required to seek, a license from the third party, which may require it to pay license fees or royalties or both. These licenses may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all. Even if a license can be obtained on acceptable terms, the rights may be nonexclusive, which could give the Company’s competitors access to the same intellectual property rights. If the Company is unable to enter into a license on acceptable terms, it could be prevented from commercializing one or more of its product candidates, forced to modify such product candidates, or to cease some aspect of the Company’s business operations, which could harm the Company’s business significantly. In addition, if the breadth or strength of protection provided by the Company’s patents and patent applications is threatened, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with the Company to license, develop or commercialize current or future product candidates.

If the Company were to initiate legal proceedings against a third party to enforce a patent covering one of its product candidates, the defendant could counterclaim that the Company’s patent is invalid or unenforceable. The outcome of proceedings involving assertions of invalidity and unenforceability during patent litigation is unpredictable. With respect to the validity of patents, for example, the Company cannot be certain that there is no invalidating prior art of which the Company and the patent examiner were unaware during prosecution. If a defendant were to prevail on a legal assertion of invalidity or unenforceability, the Company would lose at least part, and perhaps all, of the corresponding patent protection on its product candidates. Furthermore, the Company’s patents and other intellectual property rights also will not protect its technology if competitors design around the Company’s protected technology without infringing its patents or other intellectual property rights.

Finally, even if resolved in the Company’s favor, litigation or other legal proceedings relating to intellectual property claims may cause the Company to incur significant expenses and could distract its technical and management personnel from their normal responsibilities. In addition, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments, which could damage the Company’s reputation, harm its business, and the price of its common stock could be adversely affected.

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The Company may not identify relevant third-party patents or may incorrectly interpret the relevance, scope or expiration of