CONTENTS
- 1. The Client Who Requested Help over a Violation of the Trade Secret Protection Act
- - What Is the Trade Secret Protection Act?
- 2. Establishing a Defense Strategy for the Client Charged with Violating the Trade Secret Protection Act
- - Rebutting the Claim of Trade Secret Leakage: Arguing It Was Irrelevant to the Matter
- - Rebutting the Claim of Trade Secret Leakage: Arguing There Was No Infringement of Rights
- 3. A Provisional Injunction Under the Trade Secret Protection Act, the Creditor's Application Dismissed
- - Trade Secrets, Why a Specialized Attorney Is Needed
1. The Client Who Requested Help over a Violation of the Trade Secret Protection Act
This is the story of a client who requested assistance regarding a violation of the trade secret protection law.
The client was an employee in charge of strategic planning and information management at a mid-sized company headquartered in the metropolitan area, and had been involved in managing the company's internal systems and data assets for many years.
In the course of a personnel reorganization, the company notified the client of the commencement of an internal audit and a suspension from duties, and subsequently proceeded with disciplinary procedures.
After a certain period had passed following the notice of suspension from duties, the client remotely accessed the company's work server to carry out a handover and to organize personal work records, and downloaded some materials.
However, the company (hereinafter the creditor) asserted that such conduct was unfair access for the purpose of leaking trade secrets, and applied to the court for a provisional injunction prohibiting infringement of trade secrets against the client.
The creditor is asserting that the documents the client downloaded consist of technical materials, internal planning drafts, customer-related data, and the like, and therefore constitute legally protected 'trade secrets.'
The client, asserting that there had been no purpose of infringing trade secrets, sought out a specialized attorney experienced in numerous trade secret cases and visited Daeryun LLC.
What Is the Trade Secret Protection Act?
The 🔗Trade Secret Protection Act is the abbreviated name of the Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act, and its purpose is to maintain sound order in transactions through the protection of corporate trade secrets.
A 🔗trade secret means technical or managerial information useful for business activities, such as production methods and sales methods, that is not publicly known, holds independent value, and is managed as confidential.
The requirements for establishment are as follows.
▶Economic usefulness: it must have technical or managerial value
▶Confidentiality management: it must be managed as confidential
Representative types of information that may be protected as trade secrets are as follows.
▶Managerial information: customer lists, key plans, management information, manuals
A violation of the Trade Secret Protection Act may be punishable by imprisonment of up to 10 years or a fine of up to 500 million won.
If an amount equal to 10 times the property gain resulting from the violation exceeds 500 million won, a fine of not less than twice and not more than 10 times that property gain is imposed.
2. Establishing a Defense Strategy for the Client Charged with Violating the Trade Secret Protection Act
The firm set out to establish a defense strategy for a client charged with violation of the trade secret protection act.
Attorneys with expertise in the trade secret protection act took on the TF response and devised a defense strategy to rebut the creditor's assertions.
Rebutting the Claim of Trade Secret Leakage: Arguing It Was Irrelevant to the Matter
The creditor claims that the client downloaded documents constituting trade secrets, such as technical materials, internal planning documents, and customer-related data.
To prove this, the creditor submitted a related attached list as evidence, but this was a list unrelated to the matter.
This is because the attached list concerns only the 'file name, date modified, number of accounts, type, and path,' and contains no content whatsoever regarding 'the person who downloaded, the date and time of the download, and the download path.'
The attorney in charge emphasized that the attached list submitted by the creditor had no relation whatsoever to the matter, and that the creditor had failed entirely to substantiate which files constituted trade secrets and for what reason.
Rebutting the Claim of Trade Secret Leakage: Arguing There Was No Infringement of Rights
According to the Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act, a trade secret refers to information on a production method, a sales method, or other technical or managerial information useful for business activities that is not publicly known, that has independent economic value, and that has been kept secret.
In practice, the following factors are considered in order to determine whether information has secret management status.
-Classification and marking of secrets
-Access control and restriction measures for secrets
-Control over removal and reproduction
-Entry and exit security
-IT security
-Security training and operation
-Conclusion of confidentiality agreements and security pledges
However, the creditor did not ordinarily control the external removal of storage devices, nor did it install a firewall.
It was even an environment in which one could freely access the creditor company's server from home and perform work.
The attorney in charge emphasized these points and argued that the client had not infringed any right constituting a trade secret.
3. A Provisional Injunction Under the Trade Secret Protection Act, the Creditor's Application Dismissed
The court rendered a decision dismissing the creditor's application for a provisional injunction in connection with the Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act.
The court dismissed the creditors' application after determining the following: ▲ insufficient recognition of the trade secret nature of the materials, ▲ uncertainty as to whether any infringing act by the debtor existed, and ▲ lack of necessity for preservation.
Trade Secrets, Why a Specialized Attorney Is Needed
The crux of this case was to closely examine the substantive requirements for the establishment of a 'trade secret' and then prove that the client's conduct fell within the ordinary scope of business.
Disputes relating to trade secrets are highly sensitive, and an application for a provisional injunction in particular, unlike an ordinary lawsuit, requires a rapid response and precise legal argument, so expertise in the Trade Secret Protection Act is required.
At Daeryun LLC, specialized attorneys who have handled numerous trade secret cases provide a tailored response strategy, focusing on matters such as ▲whether the information constitutes a trade secret, ▲the assessment of whether the conduct constitutes infringement, and ▲whether there is a need for preservation.
If you are involved in a trade secret lawsuit such as the above, please seek out Daeryun LLC, which has handled numerous related cases and provides defense strategies dedicated solely to the client through a task force response.
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