A former employee in their 40s, who illegally removed internal documents from Samsung Biologics containing national core technologies, has been detained in court.
According to the legal community on the 11th, Hong Jun-seo, a judge at the Incheon District Court's criminal division 5, sentenced former Samsung Biologics employee A (46) to three years in prison for violating laws on the prevention and protection of industrial technology leaks and detained him in court.
Judge Hong noted, "The defendant leaked and stole the industrial technologies and trade secrets of the victim company or attempted to steal them, and given the large quantity of materials involved and the inclusion of national core technologies in the field of biotechnology, I had no choice but to impose a prison sentence."
Prosecutors previously sought a five-year prison term for A during last month's trial.
A was indicted for leaking 175 trade secrets of Samsung Biologics, including more than 3,700 pages of SOP (standard operating procedures), over a ten-day period starting in early December 2022.
On the 13th of the same month, around 7 p.m., he was caught red-handed by security personnel when he attempted to secretly remove 38 trade secrets, amounting to over 300 pages of A4 paper, from the Samsung Biologics headquarters in Songdo-dong, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, and was subsequently handed over to the police.
The materials A attempted to take included two types of national core technologies, such as IT SOP (Information Technology Standard Operating Procedures) and materials analyzing guidelines from various national regulatory authorities.
IT SOP contains standardization documents for the mass production of biopharmaceuticals, maintaining and improving the quality competitiveness of Samsung Biologics' cell culture and purification processes.
In connection with this ruling, Samsung Biologics stated, "The technologies and know-how that countless employees have accumulated over more than ten years represent crucial competitive advantages and assets for the company," adding, "We will continue to respond strongly to any acts of leaking or infringing upon trade secrets and national core technologies."