Company: PHAT
Filing Date: 2025-03-06
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-034183
Chunk: 205

Company: Phathom Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-06
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 205
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 Further, our future issued patents or the patents of our current and future licensors could be found invalid or unenforceable if challenged in court.

Competitors may infringe our intellectual property rights or those of our current and future licensors. To prevent infringement or unauthorized use, we and/or any such licensors may be required to file infringement claims, which can be expensive and time consuming. In addition, in a patent infringement proceeding, a court may decide that a patent we own or license is not valid, is unenforceable and/or is not infringed. If we or any of our current and future licensors were to initiate legal proceedings against a third party to enforce a patent directed at VOQUEZNA and any future product candidates, the defendant could counterclaim that our patent or the patent of our current or future licensor is invalid and/or unenforceable in whole or in part. In patent litigation, defendant counterclaims alleging invalidity and/or unenforceability are commonplace. Grounds for a validity challenge include an alleged failure to meet any of several statutory requirements, including lack of novelty, obviousness, written description, non-enablement, or obviousness-type double patenting. Grounds for an unenforceability assertion could include an allegation that someone connected with prosecution of the patent withheld relevant information from the USPTO or made a misleading statement during prosecution.

If a defendant were to prevail on a legal assertion of invalidity and/or unenforceability, we would lose at least part, and perhaps all, of the patent protection on such product candidate. In addition, if the breadth or strength of protection provided by our future patents and future patent applications or those of our current and future licensors is threatened, it could dissuade companies from collaborating with us to license, develop or commercialize current or future product candidates. Such a loss of patent protection would have a material adverse impact on our business.

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Even if resolved in our favor, litigation or other legal proceedings relating to our intellectual property rights may cause us to incur significant expenses and could distract our technical and management personnel from their normal responsibilities. Such litigation or proceedings could substantially increase our operating losses and reduce the resources available for development activities or any future sales, marketing or distribution activities. We may not have sufficient financial or other resources to conduct such litigation or proceedings adequately. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of such litigation or proceedings more effectively than we can because of their greater financial resources. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other