Company: VERA
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-029969
Chunk: 81

Company: Vera Therapeutics, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 81
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 may in the future require the use of proprietary rights held by third parties, the growth of our business may depend in part on our ability to acquire, in-license, or use these third-party proprietary rights.

While we may have in-licensed patents that cover atacicept, MAU868, and VT-109, it is possible that third parties may have blocking patents that prevent us from marketing, manufacturing or commercializing our patented products and practicing our in-licensed patented technology.

We may be unsuccessful in acquiring or in-licensing compositions, methods of use, processes, or other intellectual property rights from third parties that we identify as necessary for practicing inventions claimed by our patents, including the manufacture, sale and use of atacicept, MAU868, VT-109, and any future product candidates we may develop. The licensing and acquisition of third-party intellectual property rights is a competitive area, and a number of more established companies may pursue strategies to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights that we may consider attractive or necessary. These established companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their size, capital resources and greater clinical development and commercialization capabilities. In addition, companies that perceive us to be a competitor may be unwilling to assign or license rights to us. We also may be unable to license or acquire third-party intellectual property rights on terms that would allow us to make an appropriate return on our investment or at all. If we are unable to successfully obtain rights to required third-party intellectual property rights or maintain the existing intellectual property rights we have, we may have to abandon development of the relevant program or product candidate, which could significantly harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We may be involved in lawsuits to protect or enforce our patents, which could be expensive, time consuming and unsuccessful. Further, our issued patents could be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged in court.

Competitors or other third parties may infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate our intellectual property rights. To prevent infringement or unauthorized use, we may be required to file infringement or other intellectual property claims, which can be expensive and time-consuming. In addition, in a patent infringement proceeding, a court may decide that a patent we may in-license in the future or own is not valid, is unenforceable, and/or is not infringed, or may refuse to stop the other party from using the technology at issue on the grounds that our owned or in-licensed patents do not cover the technology in question. If we or