Yulchon Secures a Victory on behalf of Seoul Semiconductor Co. Ltd. against Everlight Electronics Co. Ltd., a Taiwanese Company, on an Appeal for Industrial Technology Misappropriation Claim.
2022.06.23.
Yulchon has secured a victory on behalf of Seoul Semiconductor Co. Ltd. against Everlight Electronics Co. Ltd., a Taiwanese company that hired former employees of Seoul Semiconductor who divulged the trade secret of Seoul Semiconductor (hereinafter the “defendants”), in the appellate court, which reversed the trial court decision and upheld the misappropriation of industrial technology, imposing a fine on Everlight.
On appeal, the issue was whether the technology divulged by the defendants and transferred to Everlight constituted “industrial technology.” The trial court held that, setting aside the issue of whether the technology constitutes a “trade secret”, the technology failed to constitute “industrial technology.” Leveraging on our expertise and scientific understanding of the related technology, Yulchon thoroughly reviewed the Act on the Protection of Industrial Technology and the relevant regulations, and argued that the agency’s technical determination on whether a technology constitutes “industrial technology” should be honored. As a result, the appellate court reversed the trial court’s decision and held that the technology divulged by the defendants constituted “industrial technology”, and, consequently, Everlight was chaarged with a heavier fine.
This case has significance in that the liability of a foreign corporation has been recognized even though where the misappropriation at issue took place was outside of Korea. Moreover, this case raises awareness to industrial espionage in that a substantial amount of fine has been imposed on the misappropriating party by applying regulations under the Act on Protection of Industrial Technology.
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