Are the patents pending likely to get approved?
It’s a IPR protection tactic, you can file and choose to pursue them once you’ve got a patent app number. The real costs come when you have to approve a prior art search which digs through previous apps and tells you in you have anything novel to actually patent.
GM did simailr pads and gloves previous in conjunction with D3O rather than Poron XRD, however not many people get severely injured getting hit on the pad nowadays. Gloves had their issues which was why I did my dissertation on them back in 2004 and why I’m in the cricket business still now for my sins.