Table of Contents Our success depends in part on our ability to protect our intellectual property rights, and our inability to enforce these rights could have a material adverse effect on our competitive position. We rely on the patent, trademark, copyright and trade-secret laws of the United States and the countries where we do business to protect our intellectual property rights. We may be unable to prevent third parties from using our intellectual property without our authorization. The unauthorized use of our intellectual property could reduce any competitive advantage we have developed, reduce our market share or otherwise harm our business. In the event of unauthorized use of our intellectual property, litigation to protect or enforce our rights could be costly, and we may not prevail. Many of our technologies are not covered by any patent or patent application, and our issued and pending U.S. and non-U.S. patents may not provide us with any competitive advantage and could be challenged by third parties. Our inability to secure issuance of our pending patent applications may limit our ability to protect the intellectual property rights these pending patent applications were intended to cover. Our competitors may attempt to design around our patents to avoid liability for infringement and, if successful, our competitors could adversely affect our market share. Furthermore, the expiration of our patents may lead to increased competition. Our pending trademark applications may not be approved by the responsible governmental authorities and, even if these trademark applications are granted, third parties may seek to oppose or otherwise challenge these trademark applications. A failure to obtain trademark registrations in the United States and in other countries could limit our ability to protect our products and their associated trademarks and impede our marketing efforts in those jurisdictions. In addition, effective patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret protection may be unavailable or limited in some foreign countries. In some countries we do not apply for patent, trademark or copyright protection. We also rely on unpatented proprietary manufacturing expertise, continuing technological innovation and other trade secrets to develop and maintain our competitive position. While we generally enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees and third parties to protect our intellectual property, these confidentiality agreements are limited in duration and could be breached, and may not provide meaningful protection of our trade secrets or proprietary manufacturing expertise. Adequate remedies may not be available if there is an unauthorized use or disclosure of our trade secrets and manufacturing expertise. In addition, others may obtain knowledge about our trade secrets through independent development or by legal means. The failure to protect our processes, apparatuses, technology, trade secrets and proprietary manufacturing expertise, methods and compounds could have a material adverse effect on our business by jeopardizing critical intellectual property. Where a product formulation or process is kept as a trade secret, third parties may independently develop or invent and patent products or processes identical to our trade-secret products or processes. This could have an adverse impact on our ability to make and sell products or use such processes and could potentially result in costly litigation in which we might not prevail. Our production processes and products are specialized; however, we could face intellectual property infringement claims from our competitors or others alleging that our processes or products infringe on their proprietary technology. If we were subject to an infringement suit, we may be required to change our processes or products, or stop using certain technologies or producing the infringing product entirely. Even if we ultimately prevail in an infringement suit, the existence of the suit could cause our customers to seek other products that are not subject to infringement suits. Any infringement suit could result in significant legal costs and damages and impede our ability to produce key products, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Our ability to operate our business and implement our strategies depends, in part, on the skills, experience and efforts of key members of our leadership team. We do not maintain any key-man insurance on any of these individuals. In addition, our success will depend on, among other factors, our ability to attract and retain other managerial, scientific and technical qualified personnel, particularly research scientists, technical sales professionals, and engineers who have specialized skills required by our business and focused on the industries in which we compete. Competition for qualified employees in the chemicals industry is intense and the loss of the services of any of our key employees or the failure to attract or retain other qualified personnel could have a material adverse effect on our business or business prospects. Further, if any of these executives or employees joins a competitor, we could lose customers and suppliers and incur additional expenses to recruit and train personnel, who require time to become productive and to learn our business. Apollo controls our ultimate parent company, Hexion Holdings LLC, or Hexion Holdings, which indirectly owns 100% of our common equity. In addition, Apollo has significant representation on Hexion Holdings’ Board of Managers. As a result, Apollo can significantly influence our ability to enter into significant corporate transactions such as mergers, tender offers and the sale of all or substantially all of our assets. The interests of Apollo and its affiliates could conflict with or differ from our interests. For example, the concentration of ownership held by Apollo could delay, defer or prevent a change of control of our company or impede a merger, takeover or other business combination which may otherwise be favorable for us. We could face intellectual property infringement claims that could result in significant legal costs and damages and impede our ability to produce key products, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. We depend on certain of our key executives and our ability to attract and retain qualified employees. Our majority shareholder’s interest may conflict with or differ from our interests. 19