What kind of sea man are you?
Well, actually "François de Hadoque" (created by Hergé, for Tintin´s adventures in the "Secret of the Unicorn" & "Rackham´s Treasure") on which my nick & avatar are inspired, is a captain in service of the French Navy in the era of "Roi Soleil" Louis XIV and he fights against... piracy.
Reproducing a part that geobra made does not necessarily break any laws.
Reproducing parts yourself and keeping them for personal use probably doesn´t break laws. But once you start selling them (and I believe also if you distribute them for free), it becomes illegal. I assume Geobra files patents for what they design, they would be idiots if not doing so.
I have no idea though about how long copyrights last for a specific Playmobil-part, as you said it might end after several decades have past. The classic Playmobil figure however is protected as an "artpiece" and it´s copyright extends for several more decades. And I guess Geobra is already anticipating even that won´t be extended or last forever (so they come up with swimsuit-figures & co).
A completely different product but with relevance regarding illegal copying;
Some years ago, Russia sold several modern "SU-27" fighterjets to China, and China got permission to license-produce most of those locally.
But then the Chinese started to study the design & engineering proces of the jet, and they began producing hundreds of their own (slightly altered) version as the "J-11". This chinese J-11 - which sofar hasn´t been exported and is only used domestically by the Chinese Airforce (PLAAF) - is regarded by everyone (except the Chinese themselves) as an illegal copy from the Russian Su-27.
Since then China also hacked several major US aerospace companies and defence-contracters, and got enough sensitive data to start developping and producing f.e. advanced stealth-fighters on their own (J-20 & J-31, with several features resembling the latest US F-22 & F-35 stealth-jets).
So if they are or would be interested, it would be an easy job for them to also hack Geobra (which probably spends much less on counter-cyber then f.e. Lockheed Martin or the Pentagon) and steal design & production data, allowing them to reproduce Playmobil in a qualitative manner.
