Apple Inc’s embroilment in a trademark dispute over its enormously popular iPad tablet computer has once again focused attention on China’s legal system, which is perceived as the place where non-Chinese companies go to lose cases. Ever since multinationals began moving into China in force in the 1970s, too often they have found that joint-venture partners simply seize their copyrights and begin manufacturing their own equipment, and that occasionally the western partner can be arrested or driven from the company.