Patent pending an offense, which permits theoretical damages in the hundreds of millions of dollars for high-volume consumer goods. The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act revised section 292 to say that only the United States may sue for that penalty but that a person who has suffered a competitive injury may sue for recovery of damages adequate to compensate for the injury. A provisional application, like any other patent application, also allows the applicant to use the term "patent pending". Numerous characters have assumed the name Pat Pending since at least the 1960s, notably Professor Pat Pending of cartoon series Wacky Races; the
The Ant and the Grasshopper more than enough for himself and his friends. Friz Freleng also adapted the tale in his Warner Bros. cartoon "Porky's Bear Facts" in which Porky Pig works hard while his lazy neighbor refuses to do anything, only to suffer during winter. Although Porky at last gives him a meal out of good-neighborly feeling, the bear fails to learn his lesson when spring arrives. In the later 20th century, there were a number of cynical subversions in TV shows. A typical example was the "Muppet Show" sketch in which Sam the Eagle's reading of the fable is undermined as the ant