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This excerpt taken from the ELN 6-K filed Sep 29, 2009. reduced.
Because of the significant time and expense involved in developing new products and obtaining regulatory approvals, it is very important to obtain patent and intellectual property protection for new technologies, products and processes. Our success depends in large part on our continued ability to obtain patents for our products and technologies,
maintain patent protection for both acquired and developed products, preserve our trade secrets, obtain, and preserve other intellectual property such as trademarks and copyrights, and operate without infringing the proprietary rights of third parties.
The degree of patent protection that will be afforded to technologies, products and processes, including ours, in the United States and in other markets is dependent upon the scope of protection decided upon by patent offices, courts and legislatures in these countries. There is no certainty that our existing patents or, if obtained, future
patents, will provide us substantial protection or commercial benefit. In addition, there is no assurance that our patent applications or patent applications licensed from third parties will ultimately be granted or that those patents that have been issued or are issued in the future will prevail in any court challenge. Our competitors may also develop products, including generic products, similar to ours using methods and technologies that are beyond the scope of our patent protection, which could adversely
affect the sales of our products.
Although we believe that we make reasonable efforts to protect our intellectual property rights and to ensure that our proprietary technology does not infringe the rights of other parties, we cannot ascertain the existence of all potentially conflicting claims. Therefore, there is a risk that third parties may make claims of infringement
against our products or technologies. In addition, third parties may be able to obtain patents that prevent the sale of our products or require us to obtain a license and pay significant fees or royalties in order to continue selling our products.
There has been, and we expect there will continue to be, significant litigation in the industry regarding patents and other intellectual property rights. Litigation and other proceedings concerning patents and other intellectual property rights in which we are involved have been and will continue to be protracted and expensive and could
be distracting to our management. Our competitors may sue us as a means of delaying the introduction of our products. Any litigation, including any interference proceedings to determine priority of inventions, oppositions to patents or litigation against our licensors, may be costly and time consuming and could adversely affect us. In addition, litigation has been and may be instituted to determine the validity, scope or non-infringement of patent rights claimed by third parties to be pertinent to the manufacturing,
use or sale of our or their products. The outcome of any such litigation could adversely affect the validity and scope of our patents or other intellectual property rights, hinder, delay or prevent the marketing and sale of our products and cost us substantial sums of money.
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