A former employee of Samsung Biologics has been taken into custody in court after illegally removing a large volume of internal documents containing national core technologies.
On July 11, Judge Hong Junseo of the Incheon District Court's Criminal Division 5 sentenced former Samsung Biologics employee A (46), who had been indicted without detention on charges including violation of the Act on Prevention of Divulgence and Protection of Industrial Technology, to three years in prison and ordered his immediate detention in court.
Judge Hong stated, "The defendant leaked, stole, or attempted to steal the company's industrial technologies and trade secrets. The amount stolen was substantial, and the materials included national core technologies in the field of biotechnology, making a prison sentence unavoidable."
From early December 2022 over a period of ten days, A was brought to trial on charges of leaking 175 trade secrets from Samsung Biologics, including approximately 3,700 pages of SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures), to external parties.
On December 13 of the same year, at around 7 p.m., he was caught in the act by security personnel while attempting to secretly remove 38 trade secrets?amounting to about 300 pages?from Samsung Biologics' headquarters in Songdo-dong, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, and was handed over to the police.
The materials A attempted to take reportedly included two types of national core technologies, such as IT SOPs (Information Technology Standard Operating Procedures) and documents analyzing regulatory guidelines from various countries. The IT SOPs are standardized process documents for mass production of biopharmaceuticals and contain core technologies that maintain and improve the quality competitiveness of Samsung Biologics' cell culture and purification processes.
Regarding the verdict, Samsung Biologics stated, "The technologies and know-how built up over more than ten years through the dedicated efforts of countless employees are a key competitive strength and asset of the company," adding, "We will continue to respond strongly to any acts of leaking or infringing on trade secrets and national core technologies."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
