A sales director who handed over a domestic small and midsize company's smartphone-related advanced technology and key personnel in their entirety to a Chinese firm and changed jobs has been sentenced to prison in the first trial.
According to the legal community on the 6th, the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 24 (Presiding Judge Lee Young-seon) sentenced a former sales director of small and midsize company A, a person surnamed Lee who was indicted on charges including violating the Industrial Technology Protection Act, to two years and six months in prison.
Lee was indicted in January on charges of leaking core technology for camera module inspection equipment as Lee lured 20 key engineers from A and moved to the Korean branch of a Chinese company.
Company A produces and sells smartphone camera module inspection equipment, among other products, and Lee was recruited by A in 2021 to handle overseas sales to companies including Apple.
However, when A encountered management difficulties, Lee approached Chinese companies and proposed that Lee would move with engineers and run a camera module inspection equipment business.
In 2022, Lee left with more than 20 people, including the research and development (R&D) center, design team, and sales team—key engineers in equipment development and overseas sales—moved to a new employer, and was found to have leaked A's advanced "grabber" technical data.
A grabber is a core device used in camera module inspection equipment, and it is known that only three domestic companies, including A, supply inspection equipment grabbers exclusively for Apple smartphone camera modules worldwide.
Head of Team B, a former A manager who accepted Lee's proposal, recruited personnel essential for development, and leaked trade secrets, was sentenced to one year in prison. Seven other A employees who took part in the crime received suspended sentences.
The court said, "The grabber technical data is not publicly known and has independent economic value," adding, "As technical or business information managed as confidential, it constitutes a trade secret as defined by the Unfair Competition Prevention Act."
Regarding Lee, the court explained, "Lee planned and led the overall crime, including recruiting personnel essential for development and actively seeking the foreign company or investors to move to."