49 Given that the development of our technology and product candidates is at an early stage, our intellectua t l property portfol f io directed to certain aspects of our technology and product candidates is also at an early stage. We have filed or intend to file patent applications on core aspects of our technology and product candidates; however, there can be no assurance that any such patent applications will issue as granted patents. Furthermore, in some cases, we only have filed provisional patent applications on certain aspects of our technology and product candidates, and none of these provisional patent applications is eligible to become an issued patent until, among other things, we file a non-provisional patent application within 12 months of the filing date of the applicable provisional patent application. Any failure to file a non-provisional patent application within this timeline could cause us to lose the ability to obtain patent protection for the inventions disclosed in the associated provisional patent applications. Furthermore, in some cases, we may not be able to obtain issued claims covering compositions relating to our ABC Platform and product candidates, as well as other technologies that are important to our business, and instead may need to rely on filing patent applications with claims covering a method of use and/or method of manufact f ur t e for protection of such ABC Platform, product candidates and other technologies. There can be no assurance that any such patent applications will issue as granted patents, and even if they do issue, such patent claims may be insufficient to prevent third parties, such as our competitors, from utilizing our technology. Any failure to obtain or maintain patent protection with respect to our ABC Platform and product candidates could have a material adverse effe f ct on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects. If any n of our patent applic l atio t ns does not issue as a paten t t in any n jurisd i ic d tion, we may a not be ablel to competet effe f ctiv t ely. l Changes in either the patent laws or their interpretation in the United States and other countries may diminish our ability to protect our inventions, and obtain, maintain and enforce our intellectua t l property rights and, more generally, could affe f ct the value of our intellectua t l property or narrow the scope of our owned and licensed patents. We cannot predict whether the patent applications we are currently pursuing will issue as patents in any particular jurisdiction or whether the claims of any issued patents will provide sufficient protection from competitors or other third parties. The patent prosecution process is expensive, time-consuming and complex, and we may not be able to file, prosecute, maintain, enforce or license all necessary or desirabl a e patent applications at a reasonabl a e cost or in a timely manner. It is also possible that we will fail to identify f patentable aspects of our research and development output t in time to obtain patent protection. Although we enter into non-disclosure and confid f entiality agreements with parties who have access to confid f ential or patentable aspects of our research and development output t , such as our employees, corporate collabor a ators, outside scientific f collabor a ators, CROs, contract manufact f ur t ers, consultants, advisors and other third parties, any of these parties may breach the agreements and disclose such output t before a patent application is filed, thereby jeopardizing our ability to seek patent protection. In addition, our ability to obtain and maintain valid and enforceable patents depends on whether the differences between our inventions and the prior art allow our inventions to be patentable over the prior art. In addition, our own fixed applications may become prior art against our current or future patent applications. Furthermore, publications of discoveries in the scientific f literatur t e ofte f n lag behind the actual discoveries, and patent applications in the United States and other jurisdictions are typically not published until 18 months afte f r filing, and in some cases not at all. Therefor f e, we cannot be certain that we were the first to make the inventions claimed in any of our patents or pending patent applications, or that we were the first to file for patent protection of such inventions. If the scope of any n paten t t protec t tion we obtai t n i is not suff u ic f iently t broad, or if we lose any n of our paten t t protect t io t n, our abili i ty i to prevent our competito t rs from commercializing simila i r or iden d tical technology o and product candid d at d es t wouldl be adverse r ly affe f cted t .d The patent position of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies generally is highly uncertain, involves complex legal and factua t l questions, and has been the subj u ect of much litigation in recent years. As a result, the issuance, scope, validity, enforceability and commercial value of our patent rights are highly uncertain. Our pending and future patent applications may not result in patents being issued that protect our ABC Platform, product candidates or other technologies or that effe f ctively prevent others from commercializing competitive technologies and product candidates. Moreover, the coverage claimed in a patent application can be significantly reduced before the patent is issued, and its scope can be reinterpreted afte f r issuance. Even if patent applications we license or own currently or in the future issue as patents, they may not issue in a form that will provide us with any meaningful f protection, prevent competitors or other third parties from competing with us, or otherwise provide us with any competitive advantage. Any patents may be challenged, narrowed, circumvented, rendered unenfor f ceable or invalidated by third parties. Consequently, we do not know whether our ABC Platform, product candidates or other technologies will be protectable or remain protected by valid and enforceabl a e patents. Our competitors or other third parties may be able to circumvent our patents by developing similar or alternative technologies or products in a non-infringing manner which could materially adversely affe f ct our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.