The nation's core semiconductor technology was leaked to China, causing damages worth hundreds of billions of won, but thanks to our government's efforts, the perpetrators were wiped out in one fell swoop, preventing further damage.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) (Commissioner Lee In-sil) and the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Jin-dong) announced on the 26th that they have finally indicted 6 people, including 3 former employees of large and medium-sized domestic companies who attempted to leak semiconductor wafer polishing (CMP)-related technology to China.

Mr. K (55 years old, arrested), a former employee of Company A and the main culprit, agreed to a partnership in the semiconductor wafer abrasive (CMP slurry) manufacturing business with a Chinese company in June 2019 after failing to be promoted to executive. While continuing to work for Company A, he began managing the establishment of abrasive production facilities and the business in China through messengers, etc., and scouted researchers Mr. N (52 years old, arrested), Mr. D (42 years old, arrested), and Mr. L (35 years old, not arrested) from Company B and Company C and transferred them to China. Starting in May 2020, Mr. K himself was transferred to a Chinese company as a president.

They access the company's internal network using a computer or work cell phone, view confidential company information such as semiconductor wafer polishing process diagrams, and take pictures with their personal cell phones.He is accused of leaking the information using filming techniques.

The above data includes not only advanced technologies and trade secrets related to semiconductor wafer polishing agents and polishing pads of companies A and B, but also national core technologies and trade secrets related to the semiconductor wafer polishing process of company C.

It is understood that these materials have already been transferred to a Chinese company.

In March 2022, the Technical Police received information from the National Intelligence Service's Industrial Secret Protection Center about two researchers (Team Leader D and Team Member L) from Company B who had transferred to a Chinese company and began an investigation. In April, as quarantine measures against COVID-19 were eased, Mr. D and others who had been staying in China temporarily returned to Korea one by one. The police quickly secured evidence by cooperating with the airport police to track them from the airport, conducting an undercover investigation in cooperation with the National Intelligence Service to locate them, raiding their locations, and executing search and seizure warrants.

In the process, we secured a large amount of evidence of unauthorized leakage and use of semiconductor wafer polishing technology, and through analysis of digital forensic evidence, we discovered the existence of four additional accomplices who had led the researchers' transfer, as well as circumstances in which trade secrets from Company A and Company C had been leaked, so we filed additional cases and immediately banned all of them from leaving the country to prevent them from returning to Chinese companies.

By December 2022, nine months after the initiation of the investigation, the technical police had arrested three main offenders (Mr. A, Mr. B, and Mr. D) and sent them all to the prosecution with a recommendation for indictment, and three current and former employees of companies A and B (Mr. R, Mr. M, and Mr. B) were sent to the prosecution with a recommendation for indictment without detention. In January 2023, the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office indicted them all on charges of violating the Industrial Technology Protection Act and the Unfair Competition Prevention Act (overseas leakage of trade secrets, etc.).

The exact extent of the damage is unknown because the companies are reluctant to disclose it, but it is estimated that even in the case of Company B, the smallest of the three affected companies, the economic damage caused by the technology leak is worth over 100 billion won, and it is reported that the combined damage of the three companies is in the hundreds of billions of won.

Kim Si-hyung, director of the Industrial Property Protection Cooperation Bureau, said, “In the era of technological hegemony competition, technological prowess is national power,” and added, “KIPO will further strengthen its role as a technology police and take the lead in protecting our nation’s core technologies.”

He also said, “We will work to prevent technology crimes at the source by providing re-employment opportunities as patent office examiners to top semiconductor researchers so that they do not face the temptation of technology leaks by moving overseas.”