Patent pending only offers legal protection if and when the patent is granted. If the patent is never granted which at this point it is not it offers no protection at all. The potential protection that it can offer is that the date of the original patent request would come into play in the event of a lawsuit. Again this is only relevant if and when the said patent would be granted. At this point we have been pending for more than 5 yrs. The chance of the patent ever being granted at this point are slim to none.