UK Musictime pat pending?

[Rhaegar]

Haven't posted in ages, but I was just having a spa day with my backlog that has been piling up and had a question.

My old Musictime was purchased from the UK many years ago and the new one arrived in a lot of other things I bought this week from the UK as well. I was comparing which one to keep and I notice the new one has "pat pending" on one hoof but the new one I just got has a blank instead.  All other hooves match and I don't notice any real difference (except pat-pend has a lighter colored symbol), so is there any reason one has it and one doesn't? I looked online but don't see a real answer.

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Update:
Well, here's another one apparently. My US purchased Sugar Apple has pat pending on a hoof, the UK one I just got in the same lot as Musictime is missing it.

[The_Loner]

I think it's because the patent went through during the time those ponies were produced and once the patent went through Hasbro removed the pat.pend. from the mold. If you look closely you'll probably see that the non-pat.pend. hoof looks like there's a bit of extra plastic to cover up the pat. pend. stamp.