Maybe they did a body cavity search on you while you were sleeping.
Seriously, they would have been engineering this and testing it way before you posted in April, to have them manufactured and on the market already.
As an example, I invented the notion of foam filled atv and excavation equipment tires whenI was a teenager, only to find out when pursuing the invention that it was already being done. I think this was the same kind of thing in your case. Sorry.
Like me, you had your shot, but someone else pulled the trigger. Similar to Alexander Graham Bell and that other guy, what was his name?