In just a slightly different view from someone who practices Intellectual Property law, the Chinese recognize US Patent Law as well as those of other Countries, but they will try to circumvent them whenever possible.
Part of the problem with US Intellectual Property rights is that you cannot enforce a US Patent against them in China, any more than you can enforce US criminal or corporate law against Chinese citizens or corporations in China.
To prevent Chinese companies from infringing your patent or other rights in China, you MUST perfect those rights with a Chinese patent. After all, you wouldn't want someone coming into US federal court with Chinese patent in hand, expecting us to enforce a Patent we didn't grant on ourselves, would we?
Often US Patent holders do not obtain foreign patents at all, for many reasons, including the massive expense and hassle, as well as the realization that enforcement of those patents would be expensive and highly problematic logistically.
So, it is typically only large and well-heeled corporations with huge IP budgets that do so. What that means is, any foreign country in which you do not hold domestic patents for your IP are free to use it as they wish EXCEPT permitting those products to then be imported into and sold within U S borders.
If that happens, you can take your patent to the FTC and request confiscation and a ban on further importation.
That being said, it should be understood that corporations all over the world, including those in the USA, will take advantage of the lack of IP protection whenever they can. And corporations all over the world will often roll the dice and dare those who have IP protection to prove it and enforce it.
The Chinese are certainly a bit less risk averse than some other countries. But one thing should be understood:
In any free market (and some not so free), what is not IP protected is in the public domain and free to all. What is protected by the laws of any jurisdiction are protected only to the extent that they are proven valid and are enforced (or to the extent that you can convince an infringer of those rights that they are valid, that you will enforce them, and it's not worth it for the infinger risking the transaction costs to find out if that's true).
With respect to trade dress, this is not an easy case to make. The reason is that trade dress can ONLY protect the aesthetics of a product that people have come to identify with a company as the source of a product. To the extent that any of those aesthetics also serve even the slightest functional advantage, cannot be protected by a trade dress argument.
In the case of knob locations and order, or what functions to include, there are functional considerations that will not permit them to be protected. Otherwise, you are accomplishing the protection of function with trade dress for which you could never get a patent. Only utility patents can protect function.
I do nevertheless agree with Roger's frustration. But I find fault more with the governance of our own corporations then I do with China. Sometimes I find the prioritizing of share price over all other considerations to be an incredibly flawed way to do business. Jobs in our own country, as well as the protection of our own innovation is utterly sacrificed for that short term maximization of the company's stock price. But that's another issue.
