Well, shit, I guess I should have RTFM. It is there indeed.

https://uspto.report/patent/grant/9,587,003

Maybe you're right. Maybe they're hedging their bets. This needs more investigation though. It seems like a suspiciously random and off-the-cuff drop of information into an article. They must have known what the ramifications would be with conspiracy theorists. So did they leave it understated so as to stoke division?

Clearly, they could have made an explicit claim had they wanted to.