Company: CERO
Filing Date: 2025-04-15
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001213900-25-032134
Chunk: 231

Company: CERO THERAPEUTICS HOLDINGS, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-04-15
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 231
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 patents or other intellectual property
rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.

Many companies have encountered
significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries
which we could expand to, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents, trade secrets and other
intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to biopharmaceutical products, which could make it difficult for us to stop
the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary rights generally. Proceedings to enforce
our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of
our business, could put our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and our patent applications at risk of not issuing
and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate and the damages or other
remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights around
the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or license.

We may be subject to claims that our employees,
consultants or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed confidential information of third parties.

We have received confidential
and proprietary information from third parties. In addition, we employ individuals who were previously employed at other biotechnology
or pharmaceutical companies. We may be subject to claims that we or our employees, consultants or independent contractors have inadvertently
or otherwise used or disclosed confidential information of these third parties or our employees’ former employers. Litigation may
be necessary to defend against these claims. Even if we are successful in defending against these claims, litigation could result in substantial
cost and be a distraction to our management and employees.

If we are unable to protect the confidentiality
of our trade secrets, our business and competitive position would be harmed.

In addition to seeking patent
protection for our product candidates, we also rely on trade secrets, including unpatented know-how, technology and other proprietary
information, to maintain our competitive position. We seek to protect our trade secrets, in part, by entering into non-disclosure and
confidentiality agreements with parties who have access to them, such as our employees, consultants, advisors and other third parties.
We also enter into confidentiality and invention or patent assignment agreements with our employees and consultants. Despite these efforts,
any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose our proprietary information