What should I do about an employee who does not abide by the non-disclosure agreement?

Hello. This is a corporate-specialized attorney from Daeryun Law Firm.

The company's core technology or trade secrets are critical assets that can determine business success or failure.

Accordingly, many companies are drafting non-disclosure agreements that impose confidentiality obligations not only on current employees but also on retired employees, but unfortunately, cases of violations are occasionally occurring.

As in the case you inquired about, when an employee who has signed a non-disclosure agreement uses the company's core technology after retirement to establish a similar business, the company can take various legal measures.

First, careful review of the contents of the non-disclosure agreement signed with the employee should be carried out in advance.

In particular, the presence of provisions regarding the definition of confidential information, the period of confidentiality, and the continued confidentiality obligation after retirement is important.

If such provisions are included, you can hold the employee legally responsible for violating the non-disclosure agreement and unauthorized use of the company's trade secrets or technology.

Legal measures include first quickly applying to the court for a provisional injunction to block the employee's similar business activities or technology use.

This is used as an urgent protective measure to prevent the company's technology from being further leaked externally or used without authorization.

Following this, you can proceed with civil lawsuits claiming compensation for damages suffered by the company.

At this time, it is necessary to objectively prove the leaked technology materials, the scale of damage, and business losses with objective materials.

In addition, criminal complaints under the Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act are also possible.

Daeryun Law Firm has corporate-specialized attorneys exclusively handling corporate trade secret infringement and technology leakage cases, and an evidence investigation center, allowing for one-stop response from technology leakage circumstance investigation, evidence collection, legal response strategy establishment, provisional injunction, criminal complaint, and damages claim.

For the protection of company rights, we recommend quickly consulting with a corporate-specialized attorney to organize the current situation and proceed with legal measures.

If you bring related materials and a copy of the non-disclosure agreement during the consultation, we will provide specific legal review and present response measures suitable for the case characteristics.