Company: VCYT
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001384101-25-000014
Chunk: 105

Company: VERACYTE, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 105
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, infringe third-party issued patents.

As we move into new markets and applications for our products, incumbent participants in such markets may assert their patents and other proprietary rights against us as a means of slowing our entry into such markets or as a means to extract substantial license and royalty payments from us. Our competitors and others may now and, in the future, have significantly larger and more mature patent portfolios than we currently have. In addition, future litigation may involve patent holding companies or other adverse patent owners who have no relevant product revenue and against whom our own patents may provide little or no deterrence or protection. Therefore, our commercial success may depend in part on our non-infringement of the patents or proprietary rights of third parties. Numerous significant intellectual property issues have been litigated, and will likely continue to be litigated, between existing and new participants in our existing and targeted markets, and competitors may assert that our products infringe their intellectual property rights as part of a business strategy to impede our successful entry into or growth in those markets. Third parties may assert that we are employing their proprietary technology without authorization. In addition, our competitors and others may have patents or may in the future obtain patents and claim that making, having made, using, selling, offering to sell or importing our products infringes these patents. We may incur substantial costs and divert the attention of our management and technical personnel in defending against any of these claims. 

Parties making claims against us may be able to obtain injunctive or other relief, which may block our ability to manufacture, commercialize and sell products, and may result in the award of substantial damages against us. In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us, we may be required to pay damages and ongoing royalties, and obtain one or more licenses from third parties, or be prohibited from manufacturing, commercializing or selling certain products. We may not be able to obtain these licenses on acceptable or reasonable terms, if at all. We may incur substantial costs related to royalty payments for licenses obtained from third parties, which may negatively affect our financial results. See “If we cannot license rights to use technologies on reasonable terms, our business may suffer.” 

In addition, we may encounter delays in product introductions while we attempt to develop alternative methods or products to avoid infringing third-party patents or proprietary rights. Defense of any lawsuit or failure to obtain any of these licenses may prevent us from commercializing products, and the prohibition of sale of any of our products may materially affect our business and our ability to