What Exactly Does "Patent Pending" Mean Anyway?

What does it mean to be patent pending? Feel of standing in a incredibly long line to obtain a ticket to see a movie. Only this line will take you about a year to get to the counter. Once you get there, you will be able to pony up the price of admission. And afterwards you make your way to the theater and sit through the trailers patiently waiting for the movie to start. Only these trailers can take 2-3 years or longer. On leading of that, there is no guarantee that you will even like the movie.

Behold, the patent procedure. Operating backwards, the term patent pending indicates that your rights begin from the day you location your patent application in the mail. And from that date forward, any competitor who makes, utilizes, or sells a competing item which infringes the claims of your patent will be liable to you for either: the amount of profit he makes, the quantity of dollars you lose, a reasonable licensing fee the judge deems fair, and other variables. This holds correct, amazingly, even despite the truth that an Examiner at the USPTO has even laid eyes on your application. This remains true even though your patent has not been granted. So now you ask: how?

Damages for patent infringement are retroactive back to the filing date of the original patent application. Even so, this is all contingent upon one modest detail: your patent application need to be approved. As a result, you can not file a lawsuit against any person till you have an official patent in hand. If your patent application is rejected, it is snake eyes.

As such, you ought to know that the term patent pending does not mean that you have instant rights from the time you file your patent application. At preferred, you have prospective rights in the event that your application is granted. And if your application is granted, your rights are retroactive to the filing date, and any infringement in the time among the issuance of your patent and the filing date is prospectively inside your reach.