Company: OCEA
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001641172-25-003155
Chunk: 3512

Company: Ocean Biomedical, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 3512
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 patent on the invention regardless of whether another inventor had made the invention earlier. The America Invents Act
includes a number of other significant changes to U.S. patent law, including provisions that affect the way patent applications are prosecuted,
redefine prior art and establish a new post-grant review system. The effects of these changes are currently unclear as the USPTO only
recently developed new regulations and procedures in connection with the America Invents Act and many of the substantive changes to patent
law, including the “first-to-file” provisions, only became effective in March 2013. In addition, the courts have yet to address
many of these provisions and the applicability of the act and new regulations on specific patents discussed herein have not been determined
and would need to be reviewed. However, the America Invents Act and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding
the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our issued patents, all of which could have a material adverse
effect on our business and financial condition.

The
degree of future protection for our proprietary rights is uncertain because legal means afford only limited protection and may not adequately
protect our rights or permit us to gain or keep our competitive advantage. For example:

    ●
    others
    may be able to make or use compounds that are similar to the compositions of our product candidates but that are not covered by the
    claims of our patents or those of our licensors;

    ●
    we
    or our licensors, as the case may be, may fail to meet our obligations to the U.S. government in regards to any in-licensed patents
    and patent applications funded by U.S. government grants, leading to the loss of patent rights;

    ●
    we
    or our licensors, as the case may be, might not have been the first to file patent applications for these inventions;

    ●
    others
    may independently develop similar or alternative technologies or duplicate any of our technologies;

    ●
    it
    is possible that our pending patent applications will not result in issued patents;

    ●
    it
    is possible that there are prior public disclosures that could invalidate our or our licensors’ patents, as the case may be,
    or parts of our or their patents;

    ●
    it
    is possible that others may circumvent our owned or in-licensed patents;

    ●
    it
    is possible that there are unpublished applications or patent applications maintained in secrecy that may later