Some inventors mistakenly believe that by being patent pending they have some authorization to make infringers stop copying their product. Patent pending means that a patent application has been filed, whether it is a design patent application, a provisional application, or a utility patent application (which is technically called a non-provisional application). This discussion relates to U.S. patent law only.
An inventor has no authorization to make someone stop infringing activities until a design or utility patent issues. Provisional applications never mature into issued patents. Until a patent issues the final form of the allowed claims is unknown, and it is not even known if any claims will be allowed. During prosecution claims may be deleted, added, edited, and combined.
What being patent pending does give an inventor is a filing date that a copier can't beat, so that when the patent issues the inventor or his licensee can stop infringing activities. If the application was published at 18 months after filing, the damages for infringement can be calculated from the date of publication. If infringement is likely, the inventor probably would prefer to file a utility application rather than a provisional application, in order to get an issued patent one year sooner.
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