Innovations are the basis for new and improved products, services and capabilities. In most cases, innovation is an improvement of an already existing product or service, so its competitive element is a bigger challenge to who ever is not the original provider of the products lines and services of each item and each service — but there is always room for new competition, if it has a strong economic basis of its own.
In Cases of Discovery, competition is from Copy-Cats, Reverse-Engineering and Intellectual Pirates, because there is nothing like it in the market, and Patent Protection is one of the key needed elements for founders of new enterprise, but it is not the only one needed, as you will learn from the wisdom shared at this website.
There is a good group, also working for inventors, that does more political work. Here they share The Loss of Inventor Rights – A Concise Description