Cat Fight! How These Inventors Beat the Counterfeiters That Nearly Destroyed Their Company. When a company copied their invention, Natasha and Fred Ruckel began investigating -- and got an inside look into how products are ripped off.

On Valentine's Day in 2015, Natasha Ruckel and her husband, Fred, were sitting in their living room in Gilboa, N.Y. Natasha was improvising on the piano, and Fred was listening while messing around with the couple's cat, Yoda. Fred noticed a ripple in the living room rug, forming a half circle on one side. Again and again he tossed toys into the ripple and a delighted Yoda darted in and out. Natasha looked up from her playing. "That's when we came up with the idea for the Ripple Rug," she says.

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The Ruckels, who had spent around 25 years earning their living in marketing and advertising for brands from PepsiCo to ESPN to Hasbro, were already in the midst of creating their first venture: an app that provided a way for amateur photographers to monetize online images. But they both agreed that the Ripple Rug was a better bet.