China's a country w/ a history of centralized economic planning, so, not surprisingly, property rights there are a very recent, on-going development -- as is the legal system as a whole (the current legal framework was established in 1979, and the current Constitution was written in 1982). It'll be interesting to see how, in these legal and political contexts, intellectual property law develops in China.
And Cisco may be among the first Western protagonists of the national legal experiment. The Dallas Business Journal reports that Cisco has accused a Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer of patent infringement.
Cisco has filed suits in Texas and CA, so the litigation will raise some interesting jurisdictional questions, too.