Company: CRVO
Filing Date: 2025-03-17
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001437749-25-007829
Chunk: 78

Company: CervoMed Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-17
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 78
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 contract with non-U. S. product manufacturers for products covered by such intellectual property.

The Company’ s reliance on third parties requires the Company to share its trade secrets, which increases the possibility that its trade secrets will be misappropriated or disclosed, and confidentiality agreements with employees and third parties may not adequately prevent disclosure of trade secrets and protect other proprietary information.

The Company may rely on trade secrets or confidential know-how to protect various aspects of its business, especially where patent protection is believed by the Company to be of limited value. Due to its reliance on third parties in various aspects of its business, including CMC, research and development, and collaborations, the Company must, at times, share trade secrets with such parties. The Company may also conduct joint research and development programs that require it to share trade secrets under the terms of the Company’s research and development partnerships or similar agreements. Such trade secrets or confidential know-how can be difficult to protect as confidential.

To protect this type of information against disclosure or appropriation by competitors, the Company’s policy is to require its employees, consultants, contractors and advisors to enter into confidentiality agreements and, if applicable, material transfer agreements, consulting agreements or other similar agreements with the Company prior to beginning research or disclosing proprietary information. However, current or former employees, consultants, contractors and advisers may unintentionally or willfully disclose the Company’s confidential information to competitors, and confidentiality agreements may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized disclosure of confidential information. Enforcing a claim that a third party obtained illegally and is using trade secrets or confidential know-how is expensive, time-consuming and unpredictable. In addition, the enforceability of confidentiality agreements may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

Despite the Company’s efforts to protect its trade secrets, the Company’s competitors may discover the Company’s trade secrets, either through breach of the Company’s agreements with third parties, independent development or publication of information by any of its third-party collaborators. A competitor’s discovery of the Company’s trade secrets could impair its competitive position and have an adverse impact on its business.

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Intellectual property rights do not necessarily address all potential threats to the Company’s competitive advantage.

The degree of future protection afforded by the Company’s intellectual property rights is uncertain because intellectual property rights have limitations and may not adequately protect the Company’s business or permit the Company to maintain its competitive advantage. For example:

  others may be able to make product candidates that are similar to ours but that are not covered by the claims of the patents that the Company owns or has exclusively licensed;