[swiss]

none have been issued.

After you submit a patent application to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), your invention is officially “patent pending” and you may use that term when describing the invention to others. In fact, because of the large backlog of cases at the USPTO, your invention is likely to stay “patent pending” for several years.[.] If an inventor has a patent pending for an invention and a company begins to use that invention without his permission, the inventor can proceed to get the patent issued and sue the company for patent infringement.

http://mlwise-law.com/CustomContentR...spx?ID=1108990