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 Untouchables (1959 TV series) ("Peter Gunn", "Richard Diamond", "M-Squad"). The series was spoofed in the 1963 Merrie Melodies cartoon short "The Unmentionables", with Bugs Bunny playing the role of Elegant Mess, a crime fighter who is assigned to infiltrate a black market ring operated by Rocky and Mugsy. The series was also spoofed on an episode of the 1961-62 ABC-TV/Hanna Barbara cartoon series "Top Cat" entitled "The Unscratchables". NBC's ""Saturday Night Live"" spoofed The Untouchables several times during the 1970s, with Dan Aykroyd playing Eliot Ness. In their 1988 book, "The Critics' Choice—The Best of Crime and Detective TV", authors Max Allan Collins and