Company: APM
Filing Date: 2025-04-30
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001213900-25-037669
Chunk: 129

Company: Aptorum Group Ltd
Filing Date: 2025-04-30
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 4
Chunk 129
---
 prior publications render our patent claims “obvious”
and therefore unpatentable or require us to reduce the scope of the claims for which we are seeking patent protection.

In addition, patent applications
in the United States and elsewhere generally are not available to the public until at least 18 months from the priority date, and the
publication of discoveries in the scientific or patent literature frequently occurs substantially later than the date on which the underlying
discoveries were made. Therefore, patent applications relating to drugs similar to our drug candidates may have already been filed, which
(if they result in issued patents) could restrict or prohibit our ability to commercialize our drug candidates.

The biotechnology and pharmaceutical
industries are characterized by extensive litigation regarding patents and other IP rights. Our ability to prevent competition for our
drug candidates and technologies will depend on our success in obtaining patents containing substantial and enforceable claims for those
candidates and enforcing those claims once granted. With respect to any applications which have not yet resulted in issued patents, there
can be no assurance that meaningful claims will be obtained. Even issued patents may be challenged or invalidated. If others have prepared
and filed patent applications in the United States that also claim technology to which we have filed patent applications or otherwise
wish to challenge our patents, we may have to participate in interferences, post-grant reviews, inter parties reviews, derivation or other
proceedings in the USPTO and other patent offices to determine issues such as priority of claimed invention or validity of such patent
applications as well as our own patent applications and issued patents. Patents may also be circumvented, and our competitors may be able
to independently develop and commercialize similar drugs or mimic our technology, business model or strategy without infringing our patents.
The rights granted under any issued patents may not provide us with proprietary protection or competitive advantages against competitors
with similar technology.

We may rely, in some limited
circumstances, on unpatented trade secrets and know-how to protect aspects of our technology. However, it is challenging to monitor and
prevent the disclosure of trade secrets. We seek to protect our proprietary trade secrets and know-how, in part, by entering into confidentiality
agreements with consultants, scientific advisors and contractors and invention assignment agreements with our employees. We also seek
to preserve the integrity and confidentiality of our data and trade secrets by maintaining physical security of our premises and physical
and electronic security of our information technology systems. While we have confidence in these individuals, organizations and systems,
ag