Isn't this just a specific case of the general risk of devoting your career to pushing the envelope (science/research/business, etc)? You can work 30 years on a problem, finally come out with a solution only to find you're a week late and someone already published/patented exactly what you independently came up with. Then the only thing you have to show for your 30 years of work is everyone calling you a copycat. Weren't there other physicists like a week behind Einstein with relativity? And probably tons of other examples.