The post said Rick Jamison won in a State court. As I recall, patents are a Federal issue. So the State court probably said in effect, "Yep. He has a patent and it appears Winchester infringed it." So Winchester's next step will probably be to go to Federal court and challenge his patent.

The Patent Office these days doesn't appear to look very hard at patent applications. I recall a story where IBM got a patent for the wheel (and another for "business") just to show it could be done. That may be another urban legend. But the Patent Office probably figures if the patent is invalid, it can be shown in court. In the mean time, the inventor is protected - if he can prove the merit of the patent in court.