Company: DHR
Filing Date: 2025-03-26
Form Type: ARS
Source: 0000313616-25-000085
Chunk: 49

Company: DANAHER CORP /DE/
Filing Date: 2025-03-26
Form: ARS
Chunk 49
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 23

Intellectual Property Risks If we are unable to adequately protect our intellectual property, or if third-parties infringe our intellectual property rights, we may suffer competitive injury or expend significant resources enforcing our rights. These risks are particularly pronounced in countries in which we do business that do not have levels of protection of intellectual property comparable to the United States. Many of the markets we serve are technology-driven, and as a result intellectual property rights play a significant role in product development and differentiation. We own numerous patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets and other intellectual property and licenses to intellectual property owned by others, which in aggregate are important to our business. The intellectual property rights that we obtain, however, are not always sufficiently broad and do not always provide us a significant competitive advantage, and patents may not be issued for pending or future patent applications owned by or licensed to us. In addition, the steps that we and our licensors have taken to maintain and protect our intellectual property do not always prevent it from being challenged, invalidated, circumvented, designed-around or becoming subject to compulsory licensing. In some circumstances, enforcement is not available to us because an infringer has a dominant intellectual property position or for other business reasons. We also rely on nondisclosure and noncompetition agreements with employees, consultants and other parties to protect, in part, trade secrets and other proprietary rights. There can be no assurance that these agreements adequately protect our trade secrets and other proprietary rights and will not be breached, that we will have adequate remedies for any breach, that others will not independently develop substantially equivalent proprietary information or that third-parties will not otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or other proprietary rights. Our failure to obtain or maintain intellectual property rights that convey competitive advantage and adequately protect our intellectual property; our failure to detect or prevent circumvention or unauthorized use of such property; and the cost of enforcing our intellectual property rights each can adversely impact our business and financial statements. These risks are particularly pronounced in countries in which we do business that do not have levels of protection of corporate proprietary information, intellectual property, technology and other assets comparable to the United States. The risks we encounter in such countries include but are not limited to the following: • Joint ventures that we participate in can include restrictions that could compromise our control over the intellectual property, technology and proprietary information of the joint venture; • As we expand our operations globally, increasing amounts of our data, intellectual property and technology is used and stored in countries outside the United States, and regulations in certain countries require data to be