You really only have to look at the development of the aeroplane. The wright brothers may have been the first to build a powered heavier than air flyer, however, the y then spent most of the rest of their lives and careers in court's fight patent suites, and so effectivly stifled development of the aircraft in the US that all of the important innovations in powered flight (IE, aircraft that could stay aloft for more than 12 seconds, manouver, take off and land under a variety of conditions and be navigated across large distances) where made by europeans, who where quite happy to ignore the US patents.
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the $1.5 million is in those tiny little Australian kind of dollars
Umm, $1 AU is buying about 70c US at the moment..... 1 million odd, US dollars is hardly a piddling sum
You really only have to look at the development of the aeroplane. The wright brothers may have been the first to build a powered heavier than air flyer, however, the y then spent most of the rest of their lives and careers in court's fight patent suites, and so effectivly stifled development of the aircraft in the US that all of the important innovations in powered flight (IE, aircraft that could stay aloft for more than 12 seconds, manouver, take off and land under a variety of conditions and be navigated across large distances) where made by europeans, who where quite happy to ignore the US patents.