Patent Rights

Last night I met a German man named Mattez and he told me he was a designer. I thought this meant he was a fashion designer but he corrected me and said he designed construction equipment so he was actually an engineer. I thought this was very cool as China has so much construction going on that he must be making a fortune. Mattez informed me that 10 years ago when the company he works for first came to China it was extremely profitable as they make high quality equipment. However, he informed me that now his company is having trouble as the competition in the construction industry is very fierce. Currently his company is having problems with other companies stealing their designs. Mattez informed me that they had created a new type of crane awhile ago, but in just two weeks another company came out with the exact same product they created and were selling it at a lower cost. Mattez told me that his company has a rat who is leaking secrets to other companies and then recreating their equipment. He was very glum as he informed me their is little his company can do to prevent this as copyright laws are not strictly regulated in China and it would be hard to get the government to stop this. I wonder if or when China will establish stricter copyright and patent laws to protect intellectual property.