When you have a "patent pending" that means that after some pretty exhaustive reasearch, time, and money with attornies spent you have applied for protection with the patent office.
Really with the "patent pending" you have no real protection at all. Anyone is free to knockoff, copy, replicate, whatever..the protection only kicks in when you are awarded the actual US Patent No.. Once you have the patent number issued, you now have a potiential case against anyone who commercially profitted off your exact design or concept. Keep in mind that it your responsibility to bring suit against anyone that may have infringed on your patented design or concept. There is no "patent police" or big inforcemnet agency out there chasin it down, it all ends up in court in a patent infringement case with You vs. Whoever, it is a painful process, rarely win, oh and you pay the bill for all of it.
Last time I was in one was at least 15 years ago and you are lookin at $50k-$75k retainers to the attorney just for the investigation process, no trial yet, and the more successful the product, the more it is goin to cost you, trust me, it is a sliding scale and the attorney will tax you accordingly..We were dealing with $300,000 machines so they loved us..
International patents are even more absurd to fight in court..
You pretty much have to be able to prove a direct infringement that caused you harm in the market place and direct sales from the violating company of your specifically patented product or designs in the 10's of millions of dollars to really make it worth it even to pursue in court...I mean you can send out a few "cease and desist" letters from your attorney, but to throw down in court is a different story, especially in an infringement case, experts witnesses, independent design studies, engineers, etc...cost a ton..that is why you really only see cases brought in big intellectual properties companies, capitol goods, or high technology, those are pretty much the only guys that have damages that rise to the threshold to take the case forward, companies like Dell, Microsoft, Oracle, TI, all are always involved in these cases but they have billions at risk and on the table, deals with governments, world trade groups, etc...way different scale but the cost and process are basically the same...painfull
In about three years, when the actual patent is issued from the US Patent office and if any violating companies are still around, you defineatly have the option to sue them for violating your patent...but it rarely works out economically and isn't persued..
Build a better mouse trap...alot easier
Tex