A former employee of South Korean semiconductor manufacturer SK Hynix has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for leaking information on semiconductor manufacturing technology to a Chinese company, Yonhap news agency reported on Sunday.
The Seoul High Court upheld the sentence imposed by a lower court in an appeal case involving the disclosure of classified information relating to CMOS image sensors, a technology used in non-memory chips for devices including smartphone cameras and laptops. The information was leaked to a Chinese company in 2022, according to Yonhap.
The case centres on the handling of trade secrets by the former employee, who had previously worked at SK Hynix’s office in China. According to Yonhap, the court found that the employee had printed documents or taken photographs of materials containing the company’s trade secrets after downloading them from SK Hynix’s internal server.
The court determined that the actions violated the company’s security rules. The handling of the documents and images allowed confidential information relating to semiconductor manufacturing technology to be removed from the company’s protected systems.
According to the report, the defendant subsequently disclosed some of the information in a résumé submitted to a Chinese company. Yonhap did not identify the Chinese firm involved in the case.
The employee admitted all of the charges, Yonhap reported, while most of the information that had been taken was subsequently retrieved by SK Hynix. The court nevertheless upheld the 18-month prison sentence imposed by the lower court.
The ruling comes as confidential semiconductor technology remains central to competition within the industry, with companies relying heavily on proprietary manufacturing knowledge and internal security systems to protect commercially sensitive information. In this case, the Seoul High Court’s decision confirms the lower court’s finding over the unauthorised handling and disclosure of SK Hynix’s trade secrets.
The employee’s previous position at SK Hynix’s China office was also part of the circumstances surrounding the case. The information was taken from the company’s internal server before some of it was disclosed to a Chinese firm, according to Yonhap.
The report did not provide further details about the Chinese company that received the information or specify the extent to which the disclosed material was subsequently used. It said, however, that most of the information taken by the defendant was recovered by the company.
SK Hynix is a major semiconductor manufacturer, and CMOS image sensors are used in non-memory applications such as smartphone cameras and laptops. The technology involved in the case therefore relates to components used in widely deployed consumer electronics.
The Seoul High Court had not immediately responded to a Reuters request for comment outside business hours, according to the report.
The case highlights the legal consequences in South Korea of unauthorised access to and disclosure of corporate trade secrets, particularly when confidential semiconductor technology is transferred to an overseas company. The High Court’s decision leaves the 18-month sentence in place after the defendant’s appeal against the lower court ruling.
