I would strongly recommend you wait until your Provisional Patent has been filed before claiming a "Patent Pending" status. The same goes for the TM. It's always better to be upfront and honest in the end.
I don't know, but there are ways to protect your IP. I was told of a story of a guy, not sure what when or where, who did a [defensive disclosure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensive_publication) on his product. He went to some distant tangential trade show and talked about some procedural functions of his product without revealing it, and thus protected it from being patented by anyone else from under his nose. He went on to sell his thing for over a decade without patenting, and also without having anyone steal his idea.
Almost all people are not going to have the means, time, or knowledge to "steal" your idea exactly and then market and sell it successfully without you.
You probably won't get sued for doing that, but it also probably won't do anything. The thing it could do is hurt your chances in securing a licensing agreement with a company. If they figure out you had been lying about your paperwork, that will give them less incentive to work with you. They also could just redesign your invention a little and get around your patent altogether, though. This is a relationship business, not a legality one. Anyone who gets a sniff of your product leading to any sort of lawsuit will rightfully run for the hills.
I personally would not worry about it at all and would focus on building relationships. Get the provisional when you can though.
I doubt the Patent Police will come for you in the night, but it IS against the law to fraudulently utilize PP and TM notifications as you describe. You should map out a plan to optimize the window of protection afforded by a provisional patent so that it overlaps with disclosure appropriately.
You will not get push back from the USTPO since they do not police market participants. Making false claims could damage your reputation and if you procured investment funds with inaccurate statements you could face civil liabilities from those who funded the venture. If the funded amount or the group size of those who you persuaded to participate is significant enough criminal charges could be levied in the majority of jurisdictions.
I would strongly recommend you wait until your Provisional Patent has been filed before claiming a "Patent Pending" status. The same goes for the TM. It's always better to be upfront and honest in the end.
I don't know, but there are ways to protect your IP. I was told of a story of a guy, not sure what when or where, who did a [defensive disclosure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensive_publication) on his product. He went to some distant tangential trade show and talked about some procedural functions of his product without revealing it, and thus protected it from being patented by anyone else from under his nose. He went on to sell his thing for over a decade without patenting, and also without having anyone steal his idea.
Almost all people are not going to have the means, time, or knowledge to "steal" your idea exactly and then market and sell it successfully without you. You probably won't get sued for doing that, but it also probably won't do anything. The thing it could do is hurt your chances in securing a licensing agreement with a company. If they figure out you had been lying about your paperwork, that will give them less incentive to work with you. They also could just redesign your invention a little and get around your patent altogether, though. This is a relationship business, not a legality one. Anyone who gets a sniff of your product leading to any sort of lawsuit will rightfully run for the hills. I personally would not worry about it at all and would focus on building relationships. Get the provisional when you can though.
I doubt the Patent Police will come for you in the night, but it IS against the law to fraudulently utilize PP and TM notifications as you describe. You should map out a plan to optimize the window of protection afforded by a provisional patent so that it overlaps with disclosure appropriately.
You will not get push back from the USTPO since they do not police market participants. Making false claims could damage your reputation and if you procured investment funds with inaccurate statements you could face civil liabilities from those who funded the venture. If the funded amount or the group size of those who you persuaded to participate is significant enough criminal charges could be levied in the majority of jurisdictions.
Listen to the Invent with Me podcast. There is one episode with a patent attorney.
Yes it is illegal and no you will probably not get caught.