Company: CNTB
Filing Date: 2025-03-31
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001835268-25-000014
Chunk: 158

Company: Connect Biopharma Holdings Ltd
Filing Date: 2025-03-31
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 158
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 patent prosecution for our current or any future Product Candidates may be dependent on third parties.

We may in the future rely on third parties to file and prosecute patent applications and maintain patents and otherwise protect and enforce the licensed intellectual property under some future license agreements. Under such arrangements, we may not have sufficient control over these activities for some licensed patents or patent applications and other intellectual property rights. We cannot be certain that such activities by third parties have been or will be conducted in compliance with applicable laws and regulations or will result in valid and enforceable patents or other intellectual property rights. In addition, our future licensors or licensees may not be fully cooperative or disagree with us as to the prosecution, maintenance, enforcement or defense of any patent rights, which could compromise such patent rights. Therefore, we cannot be certain that such patents and patent applications will be prepared, filed, prosecuted, maintained, enforced, and defended in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business.

We may in the future enter into license agreements where the licensors or licensees may have the right to control enforcement of the licensed patents or defense of any claims asserting the invalidity of these patents, and even if we are permitted to pursue such enforcement or defense, it might require the cooperation of our licensors or licensees. We cannot be certain that our future licensors, or our current or future licensees, will allocate sufficient resources or prioritize their or our enforcement of such patents or defense of such claims to protect our interests in the licensed patents. Even if we are not a party to these legal actions, an adverse outcome could harm our business because it might prevent us from continuing to license intellectual property that we may need to operate our business or result in invalidation or limitation of the scope of the licensed patents or other intellectual property rights. If any of our future licensors, licensees or collaborators fail to appropriately prosecute and maintain patent protection for patents covering our current or any future Product Candidates, our ability to develop and commercialize those Product Candidates may be adversely affected and we may not be able to prevent competitors or other third parties from making, using and selling competing products.

In addition, even where we have the right to control prosecution, maintenance, enforcement and defense of patent applications or patents we have acquired or licensed from third parties, we may still be adversely affected or prejudiced by actions or inactions of prior owners, licensors and/or their counsel that took place prior to us assuming control over such activities.

Future licensors may retain rights to the technology that they license to us, including the right to use the underlying