Company: TXG
Filing Date: 2025-05-09
Form Type: 10-Q
Source: 0001770787-25-000032
Chunk: 223

Company: 10x Genomics, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-05-09
Form: 10-Q
Item: Part I, Item 4
Chunk 223
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 from marketing products, services or technologies that are the same as or similar to our products, services or technologies which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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Changes in patent law or the organizational changes to the USPTO could diminish the value of our patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our current and future products, services or technologies, and could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our current or future patents.

Our ability to obtain patents and the breadth of any patents obtained is uncertain in part because, to date, some legal principles remain unresolved, and there has not been a consistent policy regarding the breadth or interpretation of claims allowed in patents in the United States and other countries. Changes in either patent laws or in interpretations of patent laws in the United States and other countries may diminish the value of our intellectual property rights or narrow the scope of our patent protection, which in turn could diminish the commercial value of our products, services and technologies.

Patent reform legislation may pass in the future that could lead to additional uncertainties and increased costs surrounding the prosecution, enforcement and defense of our patents and applications. Furthermore, the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit have made, and will likely continue to make, changes in how the patent laws of the United States are interpreted. The United States Supreme Court has ruled on several patent cases in recent years, either narrowing the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances or weakening the rights of patent owners in certain situations.

In addition to increasing uncertainty with regard to our ability to obtain patents in the future, this combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the value of patents, once obtained. Depending on actions by the United States Congress, the federal courts and the USPTO, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that would weaken our ability to obtain new patents or to enforce patents that we own or that we might obtain or license in the future. An inability to obtain, enforce, and defend patents covering our proprietary technologies would materially and adversely affect our business prospects and financial condition.

For example, various courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have rendered decisions that impact the scope of patentability of certain inventions or discoveries relating to the life sciences. Specifically, these decisions stand for the proposition that patent claims that recite laws of nature (for example, the relationships between gene expression levels and the likelihood of risk of recurrence of cancer)