The key thing you miss is that if HPI had a patent granted this wouldn't be an issue. Obviously they have no patent on the design or patent pending or else it would not be available for sale in the US.
Mike at RCM has patents or patents pending on designs that are of such a nature that they or innvocative, different, etc. Case in point is the Slipperential.
These companies have not legally wronged HPI in anyway. If they had be sure lawsuit would have issued and cease and desist orders issued.
If HPI went the route of picking a product another company made then having them improve it and put their name on it, that is nothing special. The should have had their lawyers sign exclusivety contracts for it.
Your argument holds no water. It doesn't take a chinese company to copy products which don't hold a patent. It has been done in the US for years. If someone in the US wanted to copy Mikes products that are not patented and/or copy righted in anyway, there is nothing to stop them. Mike obviously understands this as he has applied for the proper patents for items which he finds or innovative and different as such to necisitate a patent. Obviously some US companies have jumped on to what Mike is doing and now offer their own conversion kits which are very similar to what Mike sells.
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2. An unknown Chinese company (still unknown to this date) develops a 1/5 scale buggy that uses low quality components and brakes often. HPI takes notice of this very low selling, bad quality item and decides to market it with higher quality stuff.
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So it would be okay for HPI to:
A) Take their design without paying for it, make some quality improvements, then rebadge and sell it under their name for twice the price or
B) Pay that company to use their design, improve the quality, market and sell it as an HPI product, not have any exclusivity agreement on the product but somehow expect they can't sell that product to someone else?
As for as I can tell, the only thing HPI has is a copyright to the name Baja 5B.
Another case in point is that Toyota did the full R&D and manufacturing of the Matrix. GM bought rights to the design, cheapened it in many areas to fit their needs, and pays Toyota to manufacture it for them. GM then rebadges the vehicle as a Pontiac Vibe and sells it in the same markets as the Matrix. Does Toyota somehow now not have any right to sell the Matrix anymore?
The Chinese are not all a bunch of evil people sitting in room figuring out ways to hurt the US and others. Most of them are struggling and hard workers that live in shacks most Americans wouldn't put their dogs in. They are a very intelligent and innovative group and they are struggling to make their lives better, just like most people in the US. Even degreed engineers in China make less than most people working at McDonald's. My former company has a plant in China, and I have seen the payroll.
So many Americans want to sit on the sidelines and point fingers at the Chinese and pretend they themselves had nothing to do with this. It's a global economy and the one constant we have is change. You can either roll with it and adapt or get passed by. Nothing any president, congressman, or anyone else does will change this.