Company: GLPG
Filing Date: 2025-03-27
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001558370-25-003806
Chunk: 47

Company: GALAPAGOS NV
Filing Date: 2025-03-27
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 3
Chunk 47
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 various other governmental fees on patents and/or applications due in several stages over the lifetime of patents and/or applications, as well as the cost associated with complying with numerous procedural provisions during the patent application process. We may or may not choose to pursue or maintain protection for particular inventions. In addition, there are situations in which failure to make certain payments or noncompliance with certain requirements in the patent process can result in abandonment or lapse of a patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. If we choose to forgo patent protection or allow a patent application or patent to lapse purposefully or inadvertently, our competitive position could suffer. Moreover, in some circumstances, we do not have the right to control the preparation, filing or prosecution of patent applications, or to maintain the patents, covering technology subject to our collaboration or license agreements with third parties. For example, under our collaboration agreement with Gilead, Gilead controls litigation on our patents for filgotinib in jurisdictions outside the European region and for any optioned programs. Therefore, these patents and patent applications may not be prosecuted or enforced in a manner consistent with the best interests of our business.
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Legal actions to enforce our patent rights can be expensive and may involve the diversion of significant management time. In addition, these legal actions could be unsuccessful and could also result in the invalidation of our patents or a finding that they are unenforceable. We may or may not choose to pursue litigation or other actions against those that have infringed on our patents, or used them without authorization, due to the associated expense and time commitment of monitoring these activities. If we fail to protect or to enforce our intellectual property rights successfully, our competitive position could suffer, which could harm our results of operations.
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Pharmaceutical patents and patent applications involve highly complex legal and factual questions, which, if determined adversely to us, could negatively impact our patent position.
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The patent positions of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies can be highly uncertain and involve complex legal and factual questions. The interpretation and breadth of claims allowed in some patents covering pharmaceutical compositions may be uncertain and difficult to determine and are often affected materially by the facts and circumstances that pertain to the patented compositions and the related patent claims. The standards of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, the European Patent Office, and other foreign counterparts are sometimes uncertain and could change in the future. Consequently, the issuance and scope of 

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patents cannot be