cydysy

Let them reverse engineer it, but make it difficult to engineer in the first place. If you can fund a team of 20 scientists work for months to reverse engineer something, then you should gain the rewards. However, if you have a copyright system, as part of a greater legal system, then you might be only able to use this item in the frontier planets, as central planets will prosecute and confiscate. Yes, police (or mercenaries) are sent to recover gear. Lots of game play opportunities to have a footprint of a tech that belongs to one group, and you find others who are using unregistered copies, they instantly become targets.