I looked for the patent on Google Patents and the USPTO site unsuccessfully. I am extremely suspicious; the article says, "By December, he had a working prototy

I looked for the patent on Google Patents and the USPTO site unsuccessfully. I am extremely suspicious; the article says, "By December, he had a working prototype and had acquired a patent." There's no way you acquire a patent in a few months - it takes years. Maybe the article is wrong and he just filed a patent?