If you have an idea, very rarely will someone steal it until you make money. Once you make money, everyone will think about stealing it.

Built NY has been making a neoprene wine tote, our signature product, in what has become a $16-million-a-year line of totes, cases and accessories.

Without the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, cheap imitations would flood the market and put Built NY out of business, so they spend roughly 4 percent of annual budget obtaining and defending patents. They have filed more than 100 design patents, utility patents, and trademark registrations in 20 countries, and Built NY hold two registered trademarks on their two-bottle tote.

At a trade show, a woman a couple of booths down was selling an exact replica of our product. When her, her basic reaction was “So what?” It wasn’t until her attorney explained it that she abandoned the market and settled.

Just this summer they got a national chain to pull a copycat product off its shelves in 3,500 of its stores.

They’ve hired private investigators overseas, mostly in China. For between $100 and $500, they will go into a factory posing as a buyer. They’ll show a product and ask the factory, “Can you make this?” or “Have you sold this?” They’ve gotten eight cash settlements from factories by being assertive like that.

To date, they’ve served only five or six, and all have been settled in their. Built NY prepare to spend between $150,000 and $250,000 per suit if it goes the distance; most don’t for that very reason.

A much larger business has the economic advantage, but a small company can put more energy, passion and focus into a particular suit. If it’s product No. 2,061 for them and product No. 5 for you, you’re going to think about this day and night. Persistence breaks resistance.

CNN Money