In reply to RobOggie:
It's not bigoted at all to say China operates in a IP free, patent free world. I have friends who've worked for years there, it's a totally different environment and actually fosters much quicker product development cycles - you just can't horde the value of an invention.
Yes, it's less fair when it comes to the potential value extraction of the inventor, but it's potentially better for overall progress (depending on what metrics you want to use to rank success).
I personally think all of our patent battles mainly just frustrate development and siphon of capital to lawyers... so I'm not convince either the west, or the east, has yet to find the ideal balance....