IP protection is not as international as you may think

Apple is facing a patent challenge in China over the use of the "ipad" product description.This will be a little tough for the company to swallow given the proliferation of copy-cat products in the local market. Consumers (gullible tourists) even have the the ability to purchase their very own iPhone 6. Although to be fair to the unfortunate purchasers of such devices as it can be reasonably difficult to detect the authenticity of less far-fetched replicas, apart from their rock-bottom price.

One may think that companies would be afforded protection under IP rights however it's not so clear cut. In reality there appear to be no international patent laws to support 'global' patent rights. The best that businesses can hope for is protection under the umbrella of a WTO framework.

But that's not the end of the story. Setting aside the likely (or unlikely) enforceability of any such WTO-created rights, a company may still be without a case to begin with as there plenty of countries with exemptions from the general framework under what is termed TRIPS (trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights) agreements.

Certainly not easy to protect what you create.