Company: CERO
Filing Date: 2025-04-15
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001213900-25-032134
Chunk: 222

Company: CERO THERAPEUTICS HOLDINGS, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-04-15
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 222
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 patent protection. In addition, publications of discoveries in the scientific and scholarly literature often lag behind
the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the United States and other jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months
after filing, or in some cases not at all. Consequently, we cannot be certain that we were the first to file for patent protection on
the inventions claimed in our patents or pending patent applications.

The issuance or grant of
a patent is not irrefutable as to its inventorship, scope, validity or enforceability, and our patents may be challenged in the courts
or patent offices in the United States and abroad. There may be prior art of which we are not aware that may affect the validity or enforceability
of a patent claim. There also may be prior art of which we are aware, but which we do not believe affects the validity or enforceability
of a claim, which may, nonetheless, ultimately be found to affect the validity or enforceability of a claim. We may in the future, become
subject to a third-party pre-issuance submission of prior art or opposition, derivation, revocation, re-examination, post-grant or inter
partes review, or interference proceedings or other similar proceedings challenging our patent rights or the patent rights of others
in the USPTO or other foreign patent office. An unfavorable determination in any such submission, proceeding or litigation could reduce
the scope of or invalidate our patent rights, allow third parties to commercialize our technology or products and compete directly with
us, without payment to us, or extinguish our ability to manufacture or commercialize products without infringing third-party patent rights.

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Third-party claims of intellectual property
infringement may prevent or delay our product discovery and development efforts, and could increase our costs.

Our commercial success depends
in part on our avoiding infringement of the patents and proprietary rights of third parties. There is a substantial amount of litigation
involving patents and other intellectual property rights in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, as well as administrative
proceedings for challenging patents, including interference, reexamination, and post grant review proceedings before the USPTO or oppositions
and other comparable proceedings in foreign jurisdictions. We may be exposed to, or threatened with, future litigation by third parties
having patent or other intellectual property rights alleging that our product candidates and/or proprietary technologies infringe their
intellectual property rights. Numerous U.S. and foreign issued patents and pending patent applications, which are owned