Company: OCEA
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001641172-25-003155
Chunk: 2631

Company: Ocean Biomedical, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 2631
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 Noncompliance events that could result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application
include, but are not limited to, failure to respond to official actions within prescribed time limits, non-payment of fees and failure
to properly legalize and submit formal documents. In certain circumstances, even inadvertent noncompliance events may permanently and
irrevocably jeopardize patent rights. In such an event, our competitors might be able to enter the market, which would have a material
adverse effect on our business.

Any
of our patents covering our product candidates could be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged in court or the USPTO.

If
we or one of our licensors initiate legal proceedings against a third-party to enforce a patent covering one of our product candidates,
the defendant could counterclaim that the patent covering our product candidate, as applicable, is invalid and/or unenforceable. In patent
litigation in the United States, defendant counterclaims alleging invalidity and/or unenforceability are commonplace, and there are numerous
grounds upon which a third-party can assert invalidity or unenforceability of a patent. Third parties may also raise similar claims before
administrative bodies in the United States or abroad, even outside the context of litigation. Such mechanisms include re-examination,
inter partes review, post grant review, and equivalent proceedings in foreign jurisdictions (e.g., opposition proceedings). Such proceedings
could result in revocation or amendment to our patents in such a way that they no longer cover our product candidates. The outcome following
legal assertions of invalidity and unenforceability is unpredictable. With respect to the validity question, for example, we cannot be
certain that there is no invalidating prior art, of which we, our patent counsel and the patent examiner were unaware during prosecution.
If a defendant were to prevail on a legal assertion of invalidity and/or unenforceability, or if we are otherwise unable to adequately
protect our rights, we would lose at least part, and perhaps all, of the patent protection on our product candidates. Such a loss of
patent protection could have a material adverse impact on our business and our ability to commercialize or license our technology and
product candidates.

Likewise,
without taking into account any possible patent term adjustments or extensions, our current sublicensed patents sublicensed from Brown
University and Rhode Island Hospital may expire before, or soon after, our first product achieves marketing approval in the United States
or foreign jurisdictions. Upon the expiration of