It always seems to get deployed as a "The West are the only true innovators" and ignored if its like... The Islamic golden age or whatever. Also like some Arabian merchant couldn't have seen a steam train and gone "Oh, that's a good idea", it required colonialism to get ideas like plumbing etc. all over the world.
Bleh
inventions in the fields of steam trains or plumbing fall under patent right, which unlike copyright law is actually "sensible" (if you believe in intellectual property to begin with) in that it only lasts 14 years max (although companies have obviously found ways to circumvent the law in many cases)
I'm actually pretty sure there's a thought of "The Soviets could not have invented the AK-47, they must have stolen it from the Germans" as though there's an everlasting credit on nations for inventing a particular thing etc and that it is impossible that the reds could have invented anything. I'm not talking about laws, but rather which nations get credit for things and what that's used to justify (e.g. Colonialism, current Jingoism in China etc).
By that measure the Germans couldn't have invented the sloped armor of the panther tank without copying the T-34
That's different for reasons