As i said, something already existing in public in any other form - even as an idea - invalidates the concept of a patent. This is so across majority of legal juristictions throughout the world, and it was so in US until recently it was made so that those who file something first get it.

As i said, this kind of lawyerly (and corrupt) subversion of law and logic may fly in US, but in other jurisdictions it wont hold weight. Not unlike Apple's claim on 'metallic shiny rounded corners' in the earlier decades. Which they sued Samsung over and lost, after a decade or so of battles.