Having the patent yourself is a whole lot better than someone else having the patent on the same invention. Trade secrets are an alternative, if you are sure no one else will figure out how to do what you are doing for the economic life of the product. Patents only last a limited time, after which the invention is available to anyone. Another possibility is to publish the invention so that no one can ever get a patent on it. At least that way you will be able to keep on doing whatever you have been doing with the invention, even if others can also do so.
Publication can be in any language any place, so long as it is publicly accessible.
It could be on the web, or someplace very obscure. More than one has been down the same road. Faced with a shredded exhibit, the exhibitor is told by each person who handled it that someone else must have done the damage. If you didn't inspect it personally when it was first unloaded, and then after each transfer, then somehow it is your entire fault. Never mind that the reason you paid for shipping, delivery, and set up was exactly to avoid having to be on site.