Might not be the "short and fat" idea generally that is patentable, and probably not necking down or shortening any cartridge in general, but specifically necking down the .404 Jeffrey and shortening it to a certain length to fit in short action magazines might be specific enough to be patentable.
Rick did a lot of experimenting with necking down the .404 to various calibers in the mid-90's, these experiments were reported extensively in Shooting Times. Coincidentally, just a few short years later Winchester came out with a series of cartridges based on the .404 Jeffrey which were remarkably similar to what Rick had done.
IIRC there were a few posts on Shooters or maybe even this board condemning Winchester for "stealing" Rick's ideas without even bothering to give credit to his research, much less giving him any royalties or compensation.
That's okay, times change, memories grow short and now he's just a money grubbing whore.
