Honestly, people can steal your beat and you likely will have no recourse. It all depends on the strength of your relationship with the person in power and if they respect you enough to not steal your shit.
The legit way is to make sure to have a copyright with the Library of Congress in case an issue does arise. But in order to win, you have to prove that the person you copied somehow had access to your music and then had intent to copy it.
For example, you can literally have the same song, melody line, etc. jacked from you by a crooked producer. But when the producer who jacked your music takes the stand all he has to say is "I was inspired by Jesus Christ" when asked where did he come up with the beat, and you have no evidence to prove a chain of events where the producer may have been exposed to your music... then you're screwed.
Happens so much in the music biz, don't want to even talk about. Everyone steals. Get used to it.