The threat of copycats is constant in business. Despite intellectual property laws, patent filings and market dominance, competitors will find ways to offer cheaper versions of a product. Rapidly advancing technology has served to accelerate the pace of replication, making it even harder for a company to maintain the top spot in any sector. Howard Yu, management and innovation professor at the IMD business school in Switzerland, offers some helpful insights in his new book, Leap: How to Thrive in a World Where Everything Can Be Copied . He joined the Knowledge at Wharton radio show on Sirius XM to discuss his book. An edited transcript of the conversation follows. Knowledge at Wharton: Copycats have long been a problem for business, but has the replication ramped up even more because of technology? Howard Yu: That’s right. One of the biggest complaints that I’ve heard from executives in my education program is that they find any type of innovation they put out in the marketplace gets easily copied overnight.…