Company: ALGN
Filing Date: 2025-11-05
Form Type: 10-Q
Source: 0001097149-25-000079
Chunk: 122

Company: ALIGN TECHNOLOGY INC
Filing Date: 2025-11-05
Form: 10-Q
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 122
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 patent if our currently pending or future patent filings do not result in the issuance of patents or we fail to timely apply for patent protection. We may not apply for a patent if our personnel fail to disclose or recognize new patentable ideas or innovations. We may choose not to file a foreign patent application if the limited protections provided by a foreign patent do not outweigh the costs to obtain it. Further, third parties may file patents or develop IP strategies that prevent or limit the effectiveness of our patents.

We also protect our IP through copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and confidentiality obligations. We generally enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants and collaborative partners upon commencement of a relationship with us. However, despite the existence of these protections, our proprietary information has been misappropriated in the past and could be misappropriated again in the future. If these agreements do not provide meaningful protection against the unauthorized use or disclosure of our trade secrets or other confidential information, adequate remedies may not exist to prevent unauthorized uses or disclosures. Enforcement of our IP rights is time-consuming and costly, and could ultimately prove to be unsuccessful. In certain jurisdictions, enforcement of IP rights is more difficult due to legislation and geopolitical circumstances. As we launch our products in different regions at different times, our products may be acquired and reverse engineered by potential competitors in regions where infringement is more difficult to pursue. 

Our inability to maintain the proprietary nature of our technology through patents, copyrights, or trade secrets would impair our competitive advantages and could have a material effect on our operating results, financial condition, and future growth prospects. In particular, a failure to protect our IP rights might allow competitors to copy our technology or create counterfeit or pirated versions of our products, which could adversely affect our reputation, pricing, and market share. 

Litigation regarding our IP rights, rights claimed by third parties or IP litigation by any vendors on whose products or services we rely for our products and services may impact our ability to grow our business and adversely impact our reputation and results of operations.

Extensive litigation over IP rights is common in technologies and industries on which our products and services are based. Litigation, interferences, oppositions, re-exams, inter partes reviews, post grant reviews or other proceedings have been 

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necessary and will likely be needed in the future to determine the validity and scope of certain of our IP rights and those claimed by third parties. These proceedings are used to determine the validity, scope or non-infringement of certain patent rights pertinent to the manufacture, use or sale of our