Company: REE
Filing Date: 2025-05-15
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001628280-25-025661
Chunk: 73

Company: REE Automotive Ltd.
Filing Date: 2025-05-15
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 3
Chunk 73
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 REE’s competitors may design around REE’s issued patents, which may adversely affect its business, prospects, financial condition or operating results.

REE cannot assure that it will be granted patents pursuant to its pending applications. Even if REE’s patent applications succeed and it is issued patents, it is still uncertain whether these patents will be contested, circumvented or invalidated in the future. In addition, the rights granted under any issued patents may not provide REE with meaningful protection or competitive advantages. The claims under any patents that issue from REE’s patent applications may not be broad enough to prevent others from developing technologies that are similar or that achieve results similar to REE’s. The intellectual property rights of others could also bar REE from licensing and exploiting any patents that issue from its pending applications. Numerous patents and pending patent applications owned by others exist in the fields in which REE has developed and are developing its technology. These patents and patent applications might have priority over REE’s patent applications and could subject its patent applications to invalidation. Finally, in addition to those who may claim priority, any of REE’s existing or pending patents may also be challenged by others on the basis that they are otherwise invalid or unenforceable.

REE may be subject to damages resulting from claims that either it or any of its employees wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of their employees’ former employers or that they allegedly violated certain covenants, such as non-compete agreements, to which REE or its employees may have been previously or currently bound.

Many of REE’s employees were previously employed by other technology or automotive companies or their suppliers. REE may be subject to damages resulting from claims that it or these employees have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed trade secrets or other proprietary information of their former employers. For example, in December 2022, a lawsuit was filed alleging that the REE and its U. S. based subsidiaries have stolen certain trade secrets and requested, inter alia, monetary damages in an amount of no less than $2.6 billion and exemplary damages in the amount of no less than $5.2 billion. For more information, see “ Item 8: Financial Information - Legal Proceedings”. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. If REE fails in defending such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, it may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel. A loss of key personnel or their work product could hamper or prevent REE’s ability to commercialize its products, which could severely harm