As we all know, patents are useless. They're expensive, time consuming, and don't really protect you from bigger, better financed competitors.

So lets say your business is based on manufacturing and selling a new product (fairly common right?). Then your product becomes a huge hit and starts attracting attention and competition. What are some steps that you can take to make sure that this more deeply-pocketed competition doesn't just use their leverage to manufacture the same product for a cheaper price and beat your margins?

Obviously this is a complex answer, but I would really like to learn all possible solutions. Are there any case studies I can read through? It seems to be a common obstacle so I know it has been overcome before.