I guess this is why we have the term: "to stay one step in front of the competition". If you make a good product especially in a "early" product fase everybody is gonna copy everybodies best ideas. It's just how things are and even in an ideal world I think it would seriously hamstring innovation if this was not the case.
In the apple example they stole an idea before it was widely available. A very different situation as that removes the competitive advantage of being the first to market.
How companies usually deal with this in a competitive market is to stay ahead of the competition by continuously innovating and improving a product. If you have the best product with the latest features nobody is gonna even mention heresphere anymore. However just trying to cut of users and force them to use your app is never gonna work and will just irritate people.