The police have launched a compulsory investigation into Kakao, which has been sued on suspicion of misappropriating technology from Nable, a telecommunications solutions company, to develop the voice call feature "VoiceTalk" for KakaoTalk.
According to investigative authorities on May 8, the Security Investigation Division of the Gyeonggi Southern Provincial Police Agency conducted a search and seizure that morning at the KakaoTalk office inside Kakao Pangyo Ajit, located in Bundang-gu, Seongnam.
This search and seizure was carried out following a complaint filed by Nable in March of last year. Nable accused former developers who moved to Kakao, as well as the Kakao corporation itself, of violating the Act on the Prevention of Unfair Competition and Protection of Trade Secrets.
Nable claims that the developers who switched jobs transferred core VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology, which constitutes the company's trade secrets, to Kakao. The main point of the complaint is that Kakao developed the voice call feature, VoiceTalk, for KakaoTalk based on the misappropriated technology.
The police had previously been conducting a preliminary investigation, including identifying the trade secrets claimed by the complainant, and then carried out the search and seizure on this day. It is reported that police investigators spent several hours conducting the search and seizure at Kakao.
Kakao and Nable have been engaged in legal disputes for several years over VoIP-related technology. Kakao filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate patents held by Nable, while Nable filed a separate lawsuit claiming that Kakao had infringed on its patents, resulting in ongoing conflict.
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