There's so much hype in the shooting sports business it's sometimes hard to know what's real or Memorex. While it's satisfying to see that bullet manufacturers are finally producing bullets in shapes know to produce the lowest drag for decades in the aerospace industry, a question is that while theoretical calculations are nice, will the BC be as claimed once the bullet has left the bore? The engraving of the rifling into the bullet will perturb the smooth surface and certainly reduce the ballistic coefficient somewhat. Only radar or differential TOA trajectory measurements can provide the real BC of a projectile. Hornady claims to use Doppler radar to obtain the BC of their VLD bullets in flight, but most manufacturer's don't.
Patents are designed to promote innovation and to bring new technology to the market place. It grants exclusive right to the grantee to have a protected market for up to 20 years, so it is market driven. If the market is large, then a patent is quite valuable, but if the market is small, it's only good for the ego.....
I'll speculate that the application is a marketing move to get a one or two year edge on their competitors. I'm not sure what Warner's market share is, or how big the market is, but it's a good and inexpensive advertising move that allows them to mark the box with "patent pending"........
I'm not sure that a patent will be issued on the basis of this application. I believe that using a LD profile on a long range bullet is an obvious thing to do by someone skilled in the art..... By patent rules if it's obvious to someone skilled in the art, it is not patentable...... But that doesn't mean that a patent will not be granted...... Patents are usually good for small niche companies in a high volume specialty market, but if it effects a competitor's business significantly, and the competitor has money, I believe the patent could be successfully challenged and nullified if initially granted.