What does Patent Pending mean?

Category: Law

The legal designation, “patent pending” or “patent applied for” may be used for any kind of patentable process or product to indicate that a patent has been applied for but not yet issued. If a patent application has been lodged to cover an article and the application has not yet been granted/rejected/withdrawn/abandoned, the terms “patent applied for” or “patent pending” can be used. This is quite an encouraging move for the applicant as it takes considerable time from the date of filing the patent application till the date of grant of the patent. In the meantime, the applicant often gets disappointed and becomes worried as it would take a long time to secure a patent. Once the patent application is filed, the associated product or process can be marked as “patent pending” or “patent applied for”. The marking serves to notify the public, business, or potential infringers who would copy the invention that they may be liable for damages (including back-dated royalties), seizure, and injunction once a patent is issued.