Former SK hynix Employee Sentenced to 1 Year and 6 Months in Prison in Appeals Court for Leaking Trade Secrets

Printed and Photographed for Resume Purposes

"Competitors Can Easily Steal Domestic Technology"

A former employee who was put on trial for leaking SK hynix's core trade secrets in order to move to a Chinese semiconductor company was sentenced to prison once again in the appeals court.

The Seoul Court Building, home to the Seoul High Court, located in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

According to the legal community on August 9, the Criminal Division 10-1 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges: Lee Sangho, Lee Jaeshin, Lee Hyeran) sentenced former employee, Mr. Kim, who was arrested and indicted for violations of the Industrial Technology Protection Act, the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, and for breach of trust at work, to the same sentence as the first trial: 1 year and 6 months in prison.

Kim, who worked at SK hynix's local subsidiary in China, was accused of violating company security policies in 2022 by accessing the internal document management system and leaking advanced technologies and trade secrets related to CIS (CMOS image sensors) by printing or photographing them.

Investigations found that after receiving a job offer from HiSilicon, the semiconductor subsidiary of China's Huawei, and others, Kim actually cited and conveyed some of the confidential materials while preparing his resume.

The first trial court found Kim guilty of leaking trade secrets and sentenced him to prison. However, regarding the charge of leaking 'hybrid bonding' materials related to next-generation memory technology, high bandwidth memory (HBM), the court acquitted him, reasoning that the technology did not fully meet the definition of 'advanced technology' as stipulated by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The appellate court also found no errors in the legal interpretation or factual findings of the first trial and upheld the original verdict.

The court stated, "If we do not strictly punish acts of technology infringement against technologies developed through significant investment of time and money by companies, the incentive for further technological development will decrease, and an adverse cycle may arise where foreign competitors easily steal domestic technology under the pretext of recruitment." The court also added, "However, we took into account that the defendant admitted guilt, has shown remorse, and a significant portion of the leaked materials have been recovered, in determining the sentence."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.