The way to make money off a standard is to sell it's complements ( think Cisco or SUN selling equipment that works with TCP/IP and ethernet ) not to attempt to charge for use of the standard.
That seems to be how things went. Tantlinger created over 70 patents related to transportation in his lifetime. Sea-Land, his employer, sold containerized shipping services.
I doubt there were any regrets about dropping the patent. Malcom McLean, owner of Sea-Land, did pretty well for himself:
[R.J.] Reynolds agreed in January 1969 to buy Sea-Land for $530 million in cash and stock. McLean made $160 million personally and got a seat on the company’s board.
"In 1978, McLean purchased United States Lines. There, he built a fleet of 4,400-TEU container ships that were the largest afloat at the time. The ships, operating in round-the-world service, were designed in the aftermath of the 1970s oil shortages and were fuel-efficient but slow, and therefore not well-adapted to compete in the subsequent period of cheap oil. USL went bankrupt in 1987. McLean took very personally the criticism directed against him after the collapse of USL and the resulting loss of many jobs associated with and dependent on USL."