The perfect solution lies in the idiom ... "It is always better to be safe than sorry." The only way to prevent your invention from getting copy, is to protect it. There are about 7 different forms of intellectual property rights, each one has a different security level and protection period. For example the patent provides protection for a period of 20 years only in those countries where the patent has been granted. Whereas the trade secrets, copyrights, and trade marks provides a longer period of protection but easy to breach.

Nanotechnology provides hidden security features, which are invisible to the naked eye but highly effective in authenticating products. Nanoscale features, such as nanopatterns, or nanoparticles embedded within the materials, provide unique identifiers that can't be accurately replicated. These features may be used for brand protection, allowing manufacturers to distinguish genuine products from the counterfeit ones.

In addition to better IP record. Better stay a head of the competition by continue to innovate and add protection for your product. I once worked for a US company and the most effective way was to continue to beat the competition by adding more features to company’s product to stay unique and leaving the competition behind.

Well, this is a blunder, you failed as an organization if you cannot protect your invention. In this scenario, 1. You either go for the patent filing of your invention. 2. Try to do landscaping and fto searches, additionally market search to know the market demand. I believe if you are the inventor of the product you can modify it to something that won't be copied again, go for white space analysis to find the white space and work on it. In short! you either protect your existing product my patent filing and file the infringement suit. Or if they did it first then you should focus on modifying the invention!

We all know how to legally protect ourselves from technological piracy, but the best way to stay ahead of the competition is to always be innovative in every corner of the company in charge; ideas and the innovative spirit cannot be copied.