FocalTherics (FOCL) Risk Analysis

Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the United States or in other jurisdictions could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of patent applications and the enforcement or defense of issued patents. For instance, under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (the "America Invents Act"), enacted in September 2011, the United States transitioned to a first inventor to file system in which, assuming that other requirements for patentability are met, the first inventor to file a patent application is entitled to the patent on an invention regardless of whether a third party was the first to invent the claimed invention. These changes include allowing third-party submission of prior art to the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") during patent prosecution and additional procedures to challenge the validity of a patent through USPTO administered post-grant proceedings, including post-grant review, inter partes review, and derivation proceedings. Various courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have rendered decisions that impact the scope of patentability of certain inventions or discoveries relating to life sciences and medical technology. Specifically, these decisions stand for the proposition that patent claims that recite laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas are not themselves patentable unless those patent claims have sufficient additional features that provide practical assurance that the processes are genuine inventive applications of those laws, phenomena, and abstract ideas. What constitutes a "sufficient" additional feature is somewhat uncertain. Furthermore, in view of these decisions, since December 2014, the USPTO has published and continues to publish revised guidelines for patent examiners to apply when examining process claims for patent eligibility. In addition, U.S. Supreme Court rulings have narrowed the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances and weakened the rights of patent owners in certain situations. In addition to some degree of uncertainty with regard to the Company's ability to obtain patents in the future, this combination of events has created a degree of uncertainty with respect to the value of patents, once obtained. Depending on relevant laws enacted by the U.S. Congress, and decisions by the federal courts and the USPTO, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that may have a material adverse effect on our ability to obtain new patents and to defend and enforce our existing patents and patents that we might obtain in the future. Our patent portfolio may be negatively impacted by current uncertainties in the state of the law, new court rulings or changes in guidance or procedures issued by the USPTO or other similar patent offices around the world. From time to time, the U.S. Supreme Court, other federal courts, the U.S. Congress or the USPTO may change the standards of patentability, scope and validity of patents within the life sciences and medical technology and any such changes, or any similar adverse changes in the patent laws of other jurisdictions, could have a negative impact on our business, financial condition, prospects and results of operations.

Our intellectual property portfolio, including patents, is critical to our competitive position. Certain key global patents included in the HIFU division's patent portfolio are set to expire in the near future, which could expose us to increased competition or the risk of similar products entering the market. Moreover, our ability to maintain a competitive edge is strengthened by our capacity to file new patent applications and keep our existing patent protection up to date. A lapse in our patent coverage or a failure to secure new patents could impact our ability to prevent competitors from copying our current HIFU technology and to maintain or enhance our market position. While we continuously evaluate opportunities for Intellectual Property protection, the failure to timely update or extend our patent coverage could significantly affect our business. In addition, the disclosure and management of sensitive intellectual property matters, including pending or expired patents, requires careful consideration to avoid unintentionally exposing possible vulnerabilities or weaknesses in our patent portfolio. We rely on our outside Intellectual Property legal counsel and other third-party service providers to assist in navigating these risks and ensure that any filings, updates, or communications related to our patents are strategically crafted and properly implemented. However, there can be no assurance that our current patent strategy will adequately mitigate these risks or that we will be able to secure new patent protections as needed.

Our success depends in large part on our ability to develop proprietary products and technologies and to establish and protect the related intellectual property rights, without infringing the intellectual property rights of third parties. We or our licensors may be subject to claims that former employees, collaborators or other third parties have an interest in our owned or in-licensed patents, trade secrets or other intellectual property as an inventor or co-inventor. The validity and scope of claims covered in medical technology patents involve complex legal and factual questions and, therefore, the outcome of such claims may be highly uncertain. The medical device industry has been characterized by extensive patents and other intellectual property rights litigation. We may receive letters from third parties drawing our attention to their patent rights, or patent grant contestations may be filed. Third parties also may challenge our patents before administrative bodies in the United States or abroad. Such mechanisms include re-examination, post-grant review, inter partes review, interference proceedings, derivation proceedings, and equivalent proceedings in foreign jurisdictions (e.g., opposition proceedings). Such proceedings could result in the revocation or cancellation or amendment to our patents in such a way that they no longer cover our product candidates and existing products or provide any competitive advantage. The outcome of future such challenges is unpredictable, and the loss of patent protection could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations. If third parties, including our competitors, believe that our products or technologies infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate their intellectual property rights, such third parties may seek to enforce against us their intellectual property rights, including patent rights, by filing against us an intellectual property-related lawsuit, including a patent infringement lawsuit. Even if we believe third-party intellectual property claims are without merit, there is no assurance that a court would find in our favor on questions of infringement, validity, enforceability, or priority. If any third parties were to assert these or any other patents against us and we are unable to successfully defend against any such assertions, we may be required, including by court order, to cease the development and commercialization of the infringing products or technology and we may be required to redesign such products and technologies so they do not infringe such patents, which may not be possible or may require substantial monetary expenditures and time. We could also be required to pay damages, which could be significant, including treble damages and attorneys' fees if we are found to have willfully infringed such patents. We could also be required to obtain a license for such patents to continue the development and commercialization of the infringing product or technology. However, such a license may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all, including because certain of these patents may be held by or exclusively licensed to our competitors. Even if such a license were available, it may require substantial payments or cross-licenses under our intellectual property rights, and it may only be available on a nonexclusive basis, in which case third parties, including our competitors, could use the same licensed intellectual property to compete with us. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operation and prospects. Our products, including our HIFU devices, may be subject to litigation involving claims of patent infringement or violation of other intellectual property rights of third parties. The defense and prosecution of intellectual property suits, patent opposition proceedings and related legal and administrative proceedings are both costly and time consuming and may result in a significant diversion of effort and resources by our technical and management personnel. In addition to being costly, drawn-out litigation to defend or prosecute intellectual property rights could cause our customers or potential customers to defer or limit their purchase or use of our products until the litigation is resolved. We own or co-own patents covering several of our technologies and have additional patent applications pending in the United States, the European Union, Japan and elsewhere. The process of seeking patent protection can be long and expensive and there can be no assurance that our patent applications will result in the issuance of patents. We also cannot assure investors that our current or future patents are or will be sufficient to provide meaningful protection or commercial advantage to us. Our patents or patent applications could be challenged, invalidated or circumvented in the future. Failure to maintain or obtain necessary patents, licenses or other intellectual property rights from third parties on acceptable terms or the invalidation or cancellation of material patents could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. Litigation may be necessary to enforce patents issued to us or to determine the enforceability, scope and validity of the proprietary rights of others. Our competitors, many of which have substantial resources and have made substantial investments in competing technologies, may apply for and obtain patents that will interfere with our ability to make, use or sell certain products, either in the United States or in foreign markets. Patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, if all maintenance fees are timely paid, the natural expiration of a utility patent is generally 20 years from its earliest U.S. non-provisional filing date. While extensions may be available, the life of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited, and certain of our patents may also expire and fall into the public domain, as has already occurred with certain patents in the HIFU division's patent portfolio. As is common in the life sciences and medical industry, we engage the services of consultants and independent contractors to assist us in the development of our products. We rely on trade secrets and proprietary know-how, which we seek to protect through non-disclosure agreements with employees, consultants and other parties. It is possible, however, that those non-disclosure agreements will be breached, that we will not have adequate remedies for any such breach, or that our trade secrets will become known to, or independently developed by, competitors. We also rely on copyright protection. Litigation may be necessary to protect trade secrets, know-how or copyrights owned by us. In addition, effective copyright and trade secret protection may be unavailable or limited in certain countries. The occurrence of any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our products incorporate so-called "open-source" software, and we may incorporate additional open-source software in the future. Open-source software is generally licensed by its authors or other third parties under open-source licenses. According to certain of these licenses, we may be subject to certain conditions, including requirements that we offer our products that incorporate the open source software for no cost, that we make available source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon, incorporating or using the open source software and/or that we license such modifications or derivative works under the terms of the particular open source license. If an author or other third party that distributes such open source software were to allege that we had not complied with the conditions of one or more of these licenses, we could be required to incur significant legal expenses defending against such allegations and could be subject to significant damages, enjoined from the sale of our products that contained the open source software and required to comply with the foregoing conditions, which could disrupt the distribution and sale of our products.

Our success in implementing our business strategy depends largely on the skills, experience and performance of key members of our executive management team and others in key management positions. The collective efforts of each of these people, and others collaborating with them as a team, are critical to us. As a result of the difficulty in locating qualified personnel and new management, the loss or incapacity of existing members of our executive management team could adversely affect our operations. If we were to lose one or more of these key employees, we could experience difficulties in finding qualified successors, competing effectively, developing our technologies and implementing our business strategy. In addition, we rely on collaborators, consultants and advisors, including scientific and clinical advisors, to assist us in formulating our R&D and commercialization strategy. Our collaborators, consultants and advisors are generally employed by employers other than us and may have commitments, or conflict of interest, or be subject to other agreements with other entities that may limit their availability to us.

We have developed strategic relationships with a number of distributors for sales and service of our devices in certain foreign countries where we are not directly represented by a subsidiary. If these relationships are terminated and not replaced, our revenues and/or ability to market or service our devices in the related territories could be adversely affected. Our distributors' actions may affect our ability to effectively market our devices in certain foreign countries if, for example, a distributor holds the regulatory authorizations in such countries and causes, by action or inaction, the suspension of such regulatory authorizations or sanctions for non-compliance. It may be difficult, expensive, and time-consuming for us to re-establish reputation, market access or regulatory compliance in such cases. Moreover, our distributors must be in compliance with all anti-corruption laws and applicable sanctions, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA"), sanctions imposed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the European Union, His Majesty's Treasury, or other governmental or supranational entities, and other local laws prohibiting improper payments to governmental officials or to customers and we may not be able to trace or be kept informed of such improper payments. In addition, we may be named as a defendant in lawsuits against our distributors related to sales or service of our devices performed by these distributors.

In the past, securities class action litigation has often been brought against companies following a decline in the market price of their securities. This risk is especially relevant for us because innovative life sciences and medical device companies have experienced significant stock price volatility in recent years. Any litigation, if instituted, could cause us to incur substantial costs and our management resources may be diverted to defending such litigation, which could adversely affect our financial condition or results of operations.