−Removed: There have been no material changes in our risk factors from those disclosed in Part I, Item 1A to our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2023.
−Removed: The risk factors disclosed in Part I, Item 1A to our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2023, in addition to the other information set forth in this report, could adversely affect the Company's operating performance and financial condition.
+Added: There have been no material changes in our risk factors from those disclosed in Part I, Item 1A to our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2023, except for the updated risk factor provided below.
+Added: The risk factors disclosed in Part I, Item 1A to our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2023, in addition to the other information set forth in this report, including the updated risk factor below, could adversely affect the Company's operating performance and financial condition.
Additional risks not currently known or deemed immaterial may also result in adverse effects on the Company.
+Added: Intellectual property infringement assertions by third parties, including those of Tesla, could result in significant costs and adversely affect the Company's business, financial condition, operating results and reputation.
+Added: The Company actively manages its businesses to ensure compliance under contractual commitments with its customers, including matters related to intellectual property rights.
+Added: While the Company believes it has complied with its obligations in this regard and has not infringed on the intellectual property of third parties, the Company cannot assure that third parties will not assert claims, meritorious or otherwise.
+Added: For example, while the Company has attempted to work under the terms of its existing contracts with Tesla to affirm the ownership of its intellectual property, in June 2024, Tesla filed a complaint against the Company (the “Tesla Complaint”) alleging trade secret misappropriations under the DTSA and the CUTSA, breach of contract and unfair business practices relating to the Company’s dry battery electrode solutions.
+Added: The Company cannot predict whether the assertions in the Tesla Complaint or other assertions of third-party intellectual property rights or claims arising from such assertions would substantially adversely affect the Company's business, financial condition and operating results.
+Added: The defense of these claims, including the Tesla Complaint, and any future infringement claims, whether they are with or without merit or are determined in the Company's favor, may result in costly litigation and diversion of technical and management personnel.
+Added: Further, an adverse outcome of a dispute, including the dispute with Tesla, may require the Company to pay damages, cease making, licensing, or using products or offering services that are alleged to incorporate the intellectual property of others, expend additional development resources to redesign the Company's offerings, or enter into potentially unfavorable royalty or license agreements in order to obtain the right to use necessary intellectual property, which may be unavailable on terms acceptable to the Company, or at all.
+Added: Even if these matters do not result in litigation or are resolved in the Company's favor or without significant
+Added: Part II - Other Information, Continued
+Added: cash settlements, the time and resources necessary to resolve them could adversely affect the Company's business, reputation, financial condition and operating results.
Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.