Patent Pending

The expressions "patent pending" (sometimes this is abbreviated by "pat. pend." or "pat. pending") or "patent applied for" refer to a warning that inventors are entitled to use in reference to their product once a patent pending application has been filed, but before the patent is issued. The patent pending marking serves to alert potential infringers who would copy the invention. Patent pending mark notifies them that they may be liable for damages once a patent is issued. The fraudulent use of the patent pending warning is not allowed by United States law and inventors should be cautious when marking products or methods with patent pending mark that may not be covered by any patent pending.

During patent pending period, after making a proper, signed, dated, and witnessed documentation of an invention, the inventor has acquired valuable rights against any inventor who later conceives the same invention and applies for a patent. The invention may also be treated as a "trade secret" during patent pending and is kept confidential which gives the inventor the legal right to sue and recover damages against anyone who immorally learns of the invention (for example, through industrial spying).

Patent pending period refers to the stage where the patent application is filed but the patent is not yet issued. During patent pending including the one-year period after a provisional patent application is filed, the inventor can sue and recover damages against anyone who uses the invention. A pending patent application does not give an inventor any extra rights - only the hope of a future monopoly that begins when a patent issues. However, most companies that manufacture a product that is the subject of a pending patent application will mark the product "patent pending" in order to warn potential copiers that if they copy the product, they may have to stop later (and thus scrap all their molds and tooling) if and when a patent issues.

Eighteen months after filing, and while the application is patent pending, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will publish the application unless the applicant files a Nonpublication Request at the time of filing and doesn't file for a patent outside the U.S. If the application is published during the pendency or patent pending period, an inventor can later obtain royalties from an infringer from the date of publication provided (1) the application later issues as a patent; and (2) the infringer had actual notice of the published application.