MNKD 2017 Annual Report

thereof into the United States. We also may not be able to develop a non-infringing product design on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Although we own a number of domestic and foreign patents and patent applications relating to Afrezza, we have identified certain third-party patents having claims that may trigger an allegation of infringement in connection with the commercial manufacture and sale of Afrezza. We do not believe that Afrezza infringes on any patents. However, if a court were to determine that Afrezza was infringing any of these patent rights, we would have to establish with the court that these patents are invalid or unenforceable in order to avoid legal liability for infringement of these patents. However, proving patent invalidity or unenforceability can be difficult because issued patents are presumed valid. Therefore, in the event that we are unable to prevail in a non-infringement or invalidity action we will have to either acquire the third-party patents outright or seek a royalty-bearing license. Royalty-bearing licenses effectively increase production costs and therefore may materially affect product profitability. Furthermore, should the patent holder refuse to either assign or license us the infringed patents, it may be necessary to cease manufacturing the product entirely and/or design around the patents, if possible. In either event, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be harmed and our profitability could be materially and adversely impacted. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation. In addition, during the course of this kind of litigation, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, the market price of our common stock and other securities may decline. In addition, patent litigation may divert the attention of key personnel and we may not have sufficient resources to bring these actions to a successful conclusion. At the same time, some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of complex patent litigation more effectively than we can because they have substantially greater resources. An adverse determination in a judicial or administrative proceeding or failure to obtain necessary licenses could prevent us from manufacturing and selling our products or result in substantial monetary damages, which would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and cause the market price of our common stock and other securities to decline. We may not obtain trademark registrations for our potential trade names. We have not selected trade names for some of our product candidates in our pipeline; therefore, we have not filed trademark registrations for such potential trade names for our product candidates, nor can we assure that we will be granted registration of any potential trade names for which we do file. No assurance can be given that any of our trademarks will be registered in the United States or elsewhere, or once registered that, prior to our being able to enter a particular market, they will not be cancelled for non-use. Nor can we give assurances, that the use of any of our trademarks will confer a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Furthermore, even if we are successful in our trademark registrations, the FDA has its own process for drug nomenclature and its own views concerning appropriate proprietary names. It also has the power, even after granting market approval, to request a company to reconsider the name for a product because of evidence of confusion in the marketplace. We cannot assure you that the FDA or any other regulatory authority will approve of any of our trademarks or will not request reconsideration of one of our trademarks at some time in the future. RISKS RELATED TO OUR COMMON STOCK We may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service all of our indebtedness. We may be forced to take other actions to satisfy our obligations under our indebtedness or we may experience a financial failure. Our ability to make scheduled payments on or to refinance our debt obligations will depend on our financial and operating performance, which is subject to the commercial success of Afrezza, the extent to which we are 41