Company: WHWK
Filing Date: 2025-01-31
Form Type: DEFM14A
Source: 0001193125-25-018470
Chunk: 426

Company: Whitehawk Therapeutics, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-01-31
Form: DEFM14A
Chunk 426
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 and has been the subject of much litigation in recent years. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability and commercial value of our patent rights are highly uncertain. No consistent policy regarding the breadth of claims allowed in biotechnology and pharmaceutical patents has emerged to date in the United States or in many foreign jurisdictions. 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. The laws of some foreign countries do not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and we may encounter significant problems in protecting our proprietary rights in these countries. Our pending and future patent applications and those of our licensors may not result in patents being issued that protect our product or product candidates or effectively prevent others from commercializing competitive products or product candidates. - 289 -

Moreover, the coverage claimed in a patent application can be significantly reduced before the patent is issued, and our scope can be reinterpreted after issuance. Even if patent applications we own or in-licensescurrently or in the future issue as patents, they may not issue in a form that will provide us with any meaningful protection, prevent competitors or other third parties from competing with us, or otherwise provide us with any competitive advantage. Any patents that we own or in-licensesmay be challenged or circumvented by third parties or may be narrowed or invalidated as a result of challenges by third parties. Consequently, we do not know whether our product or product candidates will be protectable or remain protected by valid and enforceable patents. Our competitors or other third parties may be able to circumvent our patents or the patents of our licensors by developing similar or alternative technologies or products in a non-infringingmanner which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. The issuance of a patent is not conclusive as to its inventorship, scope, validity or enforceability, and our patents or the patents of our licensors may be challenged in the courts or patent offices in the United States and abroad. We may be subject to a third-party pre-issuancesubmission of prior art to the USPTO, or become involved in opposition, derivation, revocation, reexamination, post-grant review (“PGR”) and inter partesreview (“IPR”), or other similar proceedings challenging our owned patent rights. An adverse determination in any such submission, proceeding or litigation could reduce the scope of, or invalidate or render unenforce