Company: AMWL
Filing Date: 2025-02-12
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-019024
Chunk: 112

Company: American Well Corp
Filing Date: 2025-02-12
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 112
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 held or that may be issued may not provide adequate protection from competition. Furthermore, because the issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity or enforceability, patents issued to us have been found to be invalid in the past, and it is possible that patents issued or licensed to us may be challenged successfully and found to be invalid or unenforceable in the future. In that event, any competitive advantage that such patents might provide would be lost. If we are unable to secure or to continue to maintain patent coverage, our technology could become subject to competition from the sale of similar competing products. 

Competitors may also be able to design around our patents. Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the United States and other countries may diminish the value of our patents or narrow the scope of our patent protection. If these developments were to occur, we could face increased competition. In addition, filing, prosecuting, maintaining, defending and enforcing patents on our software and technology in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and our intellectual property rights in some countries outside the United States can be less extensive than those in the United States. 

From time to time, patents issued or licensed to us relating to our software and technology may be infringed by the products or processes of others. For example, we are aware of third parties that we believe are infringing certain of our owned patents related to our software and technology. The cost of enforcing patent rights against infringers, if such enforcement is required, could be significant and the time demands could interfere with our normal operations. Efforts to defend our intellectual property rights could incur significant costs and may or may not be resolved in our favor. If we fail to successfully enforce our intellectual property rights, our competitive position could suffer, which could harm our operating results. Regardless of the outcome, the cost and distraction associated with any such enforcement efforts could harm our business. 

We could incur substantial costs as a result of any claim of infringement of another party’s intellectual property rights. 

In the future, we could become a party to additional, patent litigation and other infringement proceedings. The cost to us of any patent litigation or other infringement proceeding, even if resolved in our favor, could be substantial. Some of our would-be competitors may sustain the costs of such litigation more effectively than we can because of their greater financial resources. 

In recent years, there has been significant litigation in the United States involving patents and other intellectual property rights. Companies in the Internet and