[BBnum3]

What you are talking about has almost definitely happened, but very rarely and I would think more in the past than currently. I seem to remember some horror stories (I think they were about old MN FIRST teams) where a team had to give their robot back to their sponsor at the end of the season to be dismantled because the company apparently didn't want their designs to be copied. I am not sure of the details of that situation, but it is an uncommon one.

I think the proliferation of teams has made it harder for big corporations (especially those who sponsor many teams) to be highly involved in the robot building process.