From paragraph 17 of the Ferguson dec,

17.  The NDA's language made it explicit that Boyer's idea had a "patent pending".  This language convinced me to sign the NDA with the non-compete language as I was assured that Boyer had a valuable product idea that was unique and already developed to the point of filing a patent application.

Paragraph 2 of the 2002 NDA clearly shows the phrase "Patent Pending" relating to Boyer's "confidential information".  Truth is Boyer never intended to file a patent since he had no device to patent at that time.  Like Ferguson said, Boyer's confidential information wasn't unique at all.