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 Magic Cottage (TV series) The Magic Cottage (TV series) The Magic Cottage was an American children's program broadcast on the now-defunct DuMont Television Network from 1949 to 1952. "The Magic Cottage" was hosted by Pat (Mary Patricia) Meikle (pronounced Michael), an artist and actress. In each episode, Meikle would tell a story illustrated by her drawings on a sketch pad propped on an easel from which fairy tale characters would transform into live characters who acted out the adventures. Among them were the likes of Larry the Leprechaun, Maxwell the Mouse, and Wilmer the Pigeon, and in each episode Pat herself transformed into a