Company: DARE
Filing Date: 2025-03-31
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001401914-25-000012
Chunk: 251

Company: Dare Bioscience, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-31
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 251
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 greater resources. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of patent litigation or other intellectual property proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our ability to compete in the marketplace, our financial condition and our stock price. Patent litigation and other intellectual property proceedings may also consume significant management time.

If a competitor infringes upon our patent or other intellectual property rights, including any rights licensed by us, enforcing those rights may be costly, difficult and time-consuming. Even if successful, litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights or to defend our patents against challenge could be expensive and time-consuming and could divert our management’s attention. We may not have sufficient resources to enforce our intellectual property rights or to defend our patent or other intellectual property rights against a challenge. Our rights to enforce and defend patents we in-license depend upon the terms of our agreements with our third-party licensors, and in some cases, our licensors have the right to control patent enforcement litigation and defense against patent infringement litigation, and we have indemnification obligations for certain losses arising from third-party claims. We also have indemnification obligations under our out-license agreements for XACIATO and Ovaprene, which could subject us to significant liabilities that may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Our rights to indemnification by our licensors and licensees may not be adequate to compensate us for losses or the 

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potential loss of our ability to manufacture and sell products. If we were unsuccessful in enforcing and protecting our intellectual property rights and protecting our products, it could materially harm our business.

We cannot guarantee that we or any of our licensors’ patent searches or analyses, including but not limited to the identification of relevant patents, the scope of patent claims or the expiration of relevant patents, are complete or thorough, nor can we be certain that we have identified each and every third-party patent and pending application in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere that is relevant to or necessary for the commercialization of our product candidates in any jurisdiction. For example, in the U.S., applications filed before November 29, 2000 and certain applications filed after that date that will not be filed outside the U.S. remain confidential until patents issue. Patent applications in the U.S., EU and elsewhere are published approximately 18 months after the earliest filing for which priority is claimed, with such earliest filing date being commonly referred to as the priority date. Therefore, patent applications covering our future product candidates, or their manufacture or use may currently be unpublished. Additionally, pending patent applications that have been