Technical Data Simple Provision by Three Parties Also Considered 'Technology Utilization'

KFTC Revises and Implements 'Guidelines for Reviewing Requests and Misappropriation of Technical Data'

From now on, methods for returning or disposing of technical data must also be specified in the technical data request form

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) has clarified in its review guidelines that the act of simply providing technical data obtained by the original contractor from a subcontractor to a third party will also be considered an act of technical misappropriation. Additionally, the technical data request form must now include the usage period of the technical data as well as methods for its return or disposal.

The KFTC announced that it has revised the 'Guidelines for Reviewing Requests and Misappropriation of Technical Data' to reflect recent amendments to the Subcontracting Act and its enforcement decree, and will implement the revised guidelines starting from the 10th. The review guidelines clarify which cases constitute illegal acts under current law when the KFTC enforces the law; they do not impose new regulations.

The revised guidelines explicitly prohibit the leakage of technical data to third parties and relax the confidentiality management requirements as a condition for the establishment of technical data.

The previous guidelines stated that "the original contractor must not 'misappropriate' the acquired technical data for themselves or a third party." In other words, only actual use of the technical data was considered misappropriation. However, with the amendment to the Subcontracting Act explicitly defining the provision of technical data obtained from a subcontractor to a third party as a separate illegal act, both ▲ use for oneself or a third party and ▲ provision to a third party will now be considered illegal acts.

Furthermore, the amendment to the Subcontracting Act relaxed the level of confidentiality and management efforts required to protect technical data from "considerable efforts" to "reasonable efforts," which has been reflected in the guidelines to expand the scope of protected technical data. Considering that subcontractors have a lower bargaining position and find it difficult to actively demand confidentiality from large corporations, the guidelines recognize confidentiality efforts made at a reasonable level.

The revised guidelines also organize legitimate reasons for requesting technical data and add examples of unfair use or provision of technical data. "Requesting cost data" has been removed from the list of legitimate reasons for requesting technical data, so the original contractor cannot demand cost-related data from the subcontractor unless they separately prove legitimacy. Accordingly, only cases such as ▲ when the original contractor and subcontractor jointly develop a patent and require technical data necessary for the patent application ▲ when the original contractor and subcontractor enter into a joint technology development agreement and request technical data necessary within the scope of the agreement ▲ when a defect occurs in a product and technical data directly related to the defect is requested for cause investigation, will be recognized as "legitimate reasons."

Additionally, from now on, when the original contractor requests technical data from the subcontractor, it is mandatory to issue a "technical data request form" that includes specific details such as the usage period of the technical data and methods for its return or disposal.

A KFTC official stated, "To provide stronger protection for subcontractors' technical data, we have reduced cases where the original contractor is exempt from liability when requesting technical data and codified that providing subcontractors' technical data to third parties is a violation of the law. Through on-site inspections, we will focus on checking whether appropriate technical data request forms are being issued, and whether necessary measures such as returning or disposing of the data are taken once the agreed usage period ends."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.