Zomedica Corp (ZOM)

[Raffis]

See pp 28: https://sec.report/Document/0001171843-19-001229/

“Some of our products may or may not be covered by a patent. Further if an application is filed, it is not certain that a patent will be granted or if granted whether it will be held to be valid. All of which may impact our market share and ability to prevent others (competitor third parties) from making, selling, or using our products.

We intend to rely upon a combination of regulatory exclusivity periods, patents, trade secret protection, confidentiality agreements, and license agreements to protect the intellectual property related to our current product candidates and our development programs. We may not be successful in protecting our intellectual property rights, including our unpatented proprietary know-how and trade secrets, or in avoiding claims that we infringed on the intellectual property rights of others. In addition to relying on patent and trademark rights, we rely on unpatented proprietary know-how and trade secrets, and employ various methods, including confidentiality agreements with employees and consultants, customers and suppliers to protect our know-how and trade secrets. However, these methods and our patents and trademarks may not afford complete protection and there can be no assurance that others will not independently develop the know-how and trade secrets or develop better production methods than us. Further, we may not be able to deter current and former employees, contractors and other parties from breaching confidentiality agreements and misappropriating proprietary information and it is possible that third parties may copy or otherwise obtain and use our information and proprietary technology without authorization or otherwise infringe on our intellectual property rights. In the future, we may also rely on litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights and contractual rights, and, if not successful, we may not be able to protect the value of our intellectual property. Any litigation could be protracted and costly and could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations regardless of its outcome.

If we are unable to obtain trademark registrations for our products our business could be adversely affected.

We have pending trademark applications for our company name and composite marks comprised of our company name, logo and/or slogan in the U.S., Canada, European Union, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Mexico. In addition, we have pending trademark applications for our “Voice of the Vet” mark in the U.S. and Canada. We have secured two registrations in the European Union for our company name and logo and for the mark Voice of the Vet powered by Zomedica & Design. While we cannot make assurances that these trademark applications will mature to registration in any pending jurisdiction, some of these applications are poised to mature to registration. The applications in Brazil and Mexico were recently filed, and we may face rejections to one or more of our pending trademark applications. Although we are given an opportunity to respond to those rejections, we may be unable to overcome such rejections. In addition, in most jurisdictions, third parties are given an opportunity to oppose pending trademark applications and to seek to cancel registered trademarks. Opposition or cancellation proceedings may be filed against our trademark applications/registrations, and our trademark applications/registrations may not survive such proceedings.

In particular, the European Union Intellectual Property Office recently determined that our proposed trademark application for certain contested goods and services was likely to cause confusion with an existing registered trademark. The opponent in that matter has also opposed trademark applications in Canada for our company name and logo, but did not oppose our applications in the United States after it sent a letter to us in June 2016 demanding that we cease use of the Zomedica mark and abandon all applications for such mark. While we believe that our mark does not violate any trademark rights of the opponent, we can provide no assurance that we will ultimately prevail in the Canadian opposition.”