It’s good that you aren’t working with them anymore. If you get burned and you keep making the same mistake, namely handing your designs to people who you know are shopping the info around to anybody that walks in the door, you have a problem. I know that it’s hard to make anything outside China these days. It’s just so easy! However, companies that are investing heavily in the design and engineering just can’t afford stuff being knocked off BEFORE they launch the product.
Man…I feel for you!
As for the spainish designers. Who knows if they even have any. Maybe the managers just walk around the shop in China and say, “make that for us”. That’s life man!