Former SK hynix employee gets 18-month prison term for leaking technology to seek job at Chinese company

South Korea’s Supreme Court has upheld an 18-month prison sentence for a former SK hynix employee who leaked confidential technology while trying to join a Chinese company.

The employee, identified only as A, worked as an expatriate at the company’s Shanghai office. In February 2022, A allegedly removed confidential materials related to image-sensor semiconductor, or CIS, processes while preparing a job application for a Chinese company.

The materials included eight documents totaling 186 printed pages. A also photographed 170 documents totaling 5,900 pages, according to the case details. Prosecutors charged A with violating laws protecting industrial technology and trade secrets, including the overseas disclosure of trade secrets, as well as occupational breach of trust.

The Supreme Court’s First Division dismissed A’s appeal on Aug. 13 and upheld the lower court’s sentence. The justices said the lower court had not exceeded the limits of free evaluation of evidence or misunderstood the legal definition of industrial technology under the technology protection law.

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The lower court did not violate logic and the rules of experience, exceed the limits of the principle of free evaluation of evidence, or misunderstand the legal principles concerning industrial technology under the law on preventing and protecting industrial technology leaks.