[desdiv]

>for example, copying the German Transrapid train design (or a Siemens power plant!).

If you're talking about the Shanghai Maglev then it's not a unauthorized copy but a licensed one[0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Maglev_Train#Technolo...

[EliRivers]

I'm talking about a group of people breaking into the storage area and spending the night examining and measuring foreign technology. That's not how licensing works. That's how reverse-engineering works.