"... But I guess the chinese government has bigger worries (like feeding 1.3b people) than upholding foreign owned IP. It is a complete MYTH that strida has no patent and Ip protection. There are several patents still in force - and Ming are suing many SELLERS of fake stridas, but the Chinese gov. Is v slow to act on factories. ..." --from the Mark Saunders email above.

I didn't know this. This changes things a bit from my POV. I thought I read somewhere else, him saying that the fakes were OK because his design was out from under patent protection and in the public domain. I wonder when this changed...?

I remember a woodworking instructor once saying that ideas are notoriously hard to defend even with patent protection, and especially if you're a little guy, expensive to the point of ruination. His advice, if you come up with something very salable, was to get into it and start manufacturing, keep it up and get ahead of any competitor who might want to grab some of your market.