Patent Pending? Or not?

A recent QMW IP graduate, Iain Russell, has written to the IPKat with a query. Iain is a lifelong fan of rock music, and in particular the type known as punk. He happens to know that there is a US pop-punk band (think Green Day or Blink 182) called "Patent Pending". The band have a website at www.patentpendingsmells.com, and they apparently have CDs for sale in the UK.

Iain's question is whether an offence is being committed under section 111 of the UK Patents Act by (according to the wording of s111(3)), "for value dispos[ing] of an article having stamped, engraved or impressed on it or otherwise applied to it the words “patent applied for” or “patent pending”, or anything expressing or implying that a patent has been applied for in respect of the article".

The IPKat thinks that the band (and possibly their record company and shops selling their records) appear prima facie to be committing an offence, and therefore ought to be facing the real prospect of prosecution. Unless, of course, a patent has actually been applied for on an aspect of their CDs. He also wonders whether the fact that CD technology is inevitably associated with many different patents, some of them possibly still pending, could be a mitigating factor.

Can anyone enlighten the IPKat and Iain further?