Formed in 2001 in Long Island, Patent Pending released a string of self-produced CDs during the early 2000s with the line-up of Joe Ragosta on guitar, Michael Ragosta on vocals, Anthony Mingoia on drums and Drew Buffardi on bass. They were joined along the way by Pat Cauchi, and later Matthew Rosenburg to add to their Ska-Punk sound.
By the time of their label debut in 2006 - Save Each Other, The Whales are Doing Fine - the band were back down to a four piece band. The album contained many re-recorded versions of earlier songs, including the live favourite Cheer Up Emo Kid. The band courted trouble before the release when the album name had to be changed after objections from the Save The Children organisation. It had originally been titled Save The Children, The Whales are Doing Fine. After the album's release Drew left the band, being replaced on tour by Claude Zdanow untli a permanent replacement could be found.
The following year, 2007, saw Patent Pending release the Christmas song and video She's A Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas featuring new band members Marc Kantor on guitar and Jay Beiner (ex-The Fad) filling the vacant bass spot. This was followed up in 2008 by the download only cover of Cascada's Every Time We Touch.
2009 saw the first major release since Save The Whales in 2006. The mini-album Attack of The Awesome saw Patent Pending heading in a new direction which would continue over the next couple of years, with Joe stepping up to share vocal duties with brother Michael. He would take over full-time shortly after when Michael left to follow different musical avenues, eventually forming his own band This Good Robot. Joshua Dicker stepped in to fill Joe's guitar role on tour and continued his involvement with Patent Pending as occasional live guitarist and song-writing partner, to the point he is often considered the band's 'sixth member'.
2010 marked the release of the I'm Not Alone mini-album and DVD. Featuring Joe in his new role as vocalist, Rob Felicetti (formerly of Pull The Pin and Freshman 15) stepped in to join Marc handling guitar duties. The CD included the songs One Less Heart to Break - a song dear to the band's hearts with its anti-suicide message - and Dance Till We Die which would eventually see them win the Dreamseeker of the Year Award at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards. Travis McGee joined the band on tour, playing bass. Although he wasn't involved in recording 2011 follow up album, he did appear in the first video released from it.
For 2011's Second Family album, Rob Felicetti's ex-band mate Corey DeVincenzo took over bass, after a short stint with Kelsey and The Chaos. Rob and Corey had previously formed the band Pull The Pin together and released three CDs before disbanding. Second Family was Patent Pending's first full length album since 2006 and solidified the direction the previous two mini-albums had been heading in. The new line-up produced some of the bands best work to date including the title track Second Family, along with several videos ranging from the tongue-in-cheek Douchebag to the acoustic Spin Me Around filmed at Joe and his fiancée Dana's wedding.
2012 saw a string of releases featuring Patent Pending and a continuing association with the band Bowling For Soup (who they had toured with several times in the past) and their front man Jaret Reddick. An appearance on Jaret's own record label's Have a Crappy Summer compilation was followed by three tracks on the One Big Happy album, which featured Bowlinng For Soup, Patent Pending and The Dollyrots, recording new material as well as covers of each other's songs. This coincided with a UK tour featuring all three bands - Patent Pending's first foray outside of North America. The Year was rounded off by the release of the digital EP Spring Break '99 (which would eventually be available on CD via Amazon On Demand the following year). The EP featured five cover versions of tunes from 1999. A sixth - a Blink-182 medley - was released as a separate free download due to licensing issues.
Following on from the huge success of their 2012 UK support slot, Patent Pending returned to the UK throughout 2013 as co-headliners with Erik Chandler, headliners in their own right, supporting Bowling For Soup again on their UK Farewell Tour; along the way pulling a support slot to Lit at their only UK show and a place at Download Festival. Between tours the band worked on their new album, funded via a Pledge Music campaign and eventually released in October 2013 with the title Brighter. Patent Pending's most adventurous album to date explored many new musical styles from Rap to Motown, but still found time to include the band's quirky humour with the Nintendo inspired Hey Mario.
The band embarked on their US Holiday Tour 2013 in December, before returning to the UK in April 2014 for a co-headlining tour with Jaret Reddick and Ryan Hamilton's People On Vacation, bringing with them Robert Ragosta as an additional guitarist.
A short US tour in the summer was followed by the release of Mario and the Brickbreakers - a whole EP and mockumetary based on the fictitious band of the same name and fetauring the song Hey Mario and and a selection of other Mario inspired songs.
October 2014 saw the band return to the UK for their most succesful full headlining tour of the UK with long time friends Suburban Legends and The Hype Theory. This time Josh Dicker provided additional live guitar. The band even took to the stage in London to one of Josh's own songs (Hangin Jeans by Dickenz) playing over the PA with Josh singing over the top. After the UK dates, Patent Pending moved on for their first ever dates on mainland Europe, in Germany.
February 2015 sees Patent Pending play Australia's Soundwave Festival in their first visit to Australasia, as well as the release, by 3 Wise Records, of their Brighter and Mario and the Brickbreakers albums as a double CD set. While in Australia, the band are annouced as additions to the UK's Slam Dunk Festival in May.