What is the best way to deal with a competitor who keeps trying to copy you?

Lead them. Always be ahead by doing what you love. Take Tesla’s/Elon Musk’s example. They are always better than their competitors in creating the newest, most useful technology, because they are always working with dedication, passion and creativity, not from a lack of belief in one’s creativity and copying from others. Therefore, people are seeing this genuine work, and they are becoming fans and supporters and investors. Even their patents have been open sourced. They don’t fear their competitors because they know they are ahead from within.

If you truly know within yourself that what you do is creating good for the world and are commited, your copycat competitors will actually be beneficial for you. They will further your cause by making a slightly outdated version of it available to more of the masses. You can’t provide physically for all by your own person can you? Your closest aides will be the colleagues in your own company who are conscious enough to not try to copy you but work with you, because they know this will be more effective. Your copycat competitors will not be that conscious but don’t judge them, leave them be, they are at least somewhat inspired by you and spending their energy to produce something useful. Some of them later may even join your cause. Focus on what you truly value. Energy flows where attention is placed. Place your attention to creating the most novel, most useful technology/work and making it available to the world. As people awaken enough to directly support you, employ them. Otherwise, stick with your awakened enough, smaller team. Manage investors with the same principles. Don’t give up your leader/ownership status until the organization itself is conscious enough to keep going by itself. Take investments and keep leadership until the organization can work by itself with minimal supervision and as long as you know within that you are carrying the flame of leadership. You may withdraw to a more evolved cause when you know from within and see that the situation is ready.

Add-on: Depending on where you are at/your current understanding, you may have successes and failures on the way. But the direction you have invested your energy in, if it was an honoring of your deepest knowing, what you best knew to be of most value, then the direction of your experience will have been moving in that direction. Companies can come and go, the first ventures of many famous entrepreneurs have failed as companies. Winning/besting your competitor is never the point, bringing the value, the love, the consciousness, the awareness into your experience is the point. That way you will evolve. Anyone can possibly beat/bring down a competitor with various tactics without evolving their capacity to create actual value. But this won’t serve your highest good..