That would give you a good, solid year-and-a-half to capitalize on it. Guy could sell a lot of radios in a year and a half. And if you KEEP developing it, you can always be selling something new.
I can see where cheep chinese knockoffs like the Jetjoe have totally and completely devastated the model turbine industry, overnight. I was at the Jetcat banruptcy auction last week, picked up a whole card of glow plugs for ten bucks. If I can tease the elements back IN, I can use them on my Chinese made copy of the OS Wankel.
So, yeah, I can understand why you do not bother. No point in taking any risks. Much better to just keep working for somebody else.
But...if EVERYBODY thought that way, the Wright Brothers would never have invented the lightbulb, right?