Company: HCWB
Filing Date: 2025-03-28
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-046724
Chunk: 31

Company: HCW Biologics Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-28
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 31
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 it can only be extended based on one product.

The term of patents outside of the United States varies in accordance with provisions of applicable local law, but typically is also 20 years from the earliest effective national filing date. Similar patent term extension provisions are available in Europe and other foreign jurisdictions to extend the term of a patent covering an approved drug. When possible, we expect to apply for patent term extensions for future patents covering our product candidates and their methods of use.

New Chimeric Polypeptide Platform

As of December 31, 2024, HCW Biologics has filed two provisional patent applications related to a new chimeric polypeptide platform.  The new chimeric polypeptide platform will be useful in the generation of polypeptides with therapeutic potential (e.g., useful in the field of inflammaging).

Trademarks

We have two registered U.S. trademarks and two pending U.S. trademark applications for our corporate name and corporate logo. We have an International Registration for the mark HCW BIOLOGICS for pharmaceutical research and development services, among other related services, in Class 42 and four national trademark applications pending therefrom with two registrations issued in the European Union and Japan. In the future, we intend to file applications for trademark registrations in connection with our Company, our product candidates, and other technologies in various jurisdictions, including the United States as the products are further developed.

Trade Secret Protection

Finally, we may rely, in some circumstances, on trade secrets to protect our technology. We seek to protect our internally-developed technology and processes, in part, by entering into confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants, scientific advisors, and contractors. 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.

In addition to the above, we have established expertise and development capabilities focused in the areas of preclinical research and development, manufacturing and manufacturing process development, quality control, quality assurance, regulatory affairs, and clinical trial design and implementation. We believe that our focus and expertise will help us develop products based on our internally-developed intellectual property.

 Contracts and Agreements

Wugen Exclusive Worldwide License Agreement

In December 2020, we entered into an exclusive worldwide license agreement with Wugen, for rights to use certain HCWB fusion protein molecules to develop, manufacture, and commercialize their cellular therapy products. The term of the agreement will expire on a product-by-product and country-by-country basis, upon the