Patent Office Establishes Institutional Safeguards to Prevent Trade Secret Leakage

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Institutional safeguards to prevent the leakage of corporate trade secrets in advance are being established.

On the 24th, the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced that it has established and will implement the "1st Basic Plan for the Prevention of Unfair Competition and Protection of Trade Secrets (2022-2026)" aimed at preventing trade secret leakage and establishing fair competition.

The basic plan focuses on preventing frequent domestic and international trade secret leaks amid intensified technological competition between companies, and on stopping the leakage of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and semiconductors, which are used jointly by the private sector and the military, overseas, thereby threatening the national economy and security.

First, KIPO will strengthen its "intelligence function" to proactively protect core technologies and holding companies that are crucial to the national economy and security. The core is to select key technology-holding companies through patent analysis and support them to prevent trade secrets related to their technologies from leaking externally.

To this end, KIPO will hire retired technical personnel who have been engaged in core technology research as patent examiners to prevent trade secret leakage caused by overseas job changes of key personnel.

Additionally, KIPO plans to block the overseas leakage of corporate trade secrets in advance by easing the proof requirements for overseas trade secret leakage, establishing regulations on industrial espionage, and preparing special provisions on the statute of limitations.

The basic plan also includes expanding the investigative capabilities of KIPO’s technology police and strengthening strategic trade secret protection at private research institutions.

KIPO will expand the scope of technology police investigations to cover all technology leakage crimes, reinforce specialized personnel such as forensic experts and dispatched prosecutors, and improve evidence collection systems and ease the burden of proof on victims of technology leakage, thereby laying the groundwork for early resolution of trade secret disputes.

Furthermore, to facilitate smooth information sharing in industrial espionage investigations, a cooperative network among KIPO, the National Police Agency, and Interpol will be established. Simultaneously, penalties for corporate organized technology leakage will be increased, and a confiscation (recovery of unjust profits) system will be introduced to strengthen investigations and follow-up measures.

For private research institutions such as universities, which have had relatively insufficient protection measures compared to companies, KIPO plans to support education on methodologies and strategic planning to protect research and development outcomes as patents and trade secrets.

In addition, KIPO will pursue measures to improve systems by studying types of unfair competition acts in digital environments such as the metaverse and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), including disparagement of competing companies.

KIPO Commissioner Kim Yong-rae pointed out, "Trade secret leakage can have negative impacts not only on specific companies but also on the national economy and security, so preemptive and post-response measures to prevent leakage are very important."

He emphasized, "It is urgent to prevent the leakage overseas of related technologies in core new technology fields such as semiconductors and batteries, which are considered key areas in the era of technological hegemony," and added, "To this end, KIPO has established the basic plan to create an environment where trade secrets held by domestic companies and research institutions such as universities can be fully protected, and plans to expand cooperation with related ministries and agencies."

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