There are three types of patents: utility, design and plant. Utility and plant patent applications can be provisional and nonprovisional. Provisional applications may not be filed for design inventions.
On the other hand, a “granted patent” refers to a patent application that has successfully passed the scrutiny of the patent office, leading to the issuance of a patent. This grant affirms that the invention is novel, non-obvious, and useful, meeting all patentability criteria.
Patents benefit inventors by providing them with legal protection of their inventions. However, patents also benefit the society by providing public access to technical information about these inventions, and thus accelerating innovation.
The most important difference between a patent pending status and holding a patent is that patent pending denotes that a patent application has been filed. "Patent pending" simply means that you have applied for, but have not yet been granted, a patent.