The Seoul High Court upheld an 18-month prison sentence for a former SK Hynix employee convicted of leaking classified semiconductor manufacturing technology to a Chinese company in 2022 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. The leaked technology involved CMOS image sensors (CIS), which are widely used in smartphone cameras and laptops [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9].
The defendant previously worked at SK Hynix's China office, where he downloaded internal secret documents from the company's servers. Some of these documents were printed or photographed before he disclosed part of the information in a resume submitted to a Chinese firm seeking employment [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. The court did not publicly identify the Chinese recipient company [1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9].
The defendant admitted to the charges. Most of the stolen information was recovered by SK Hynix during the investigation [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. The leaked trade secrets represented years of research and development investment by the South Korean company [4, 6, 9]. The court emphasized that a lighter sentence would undermine corporate R&D incentives and make it easier for overseas competitors to steal technology through talent poaching [4, 6, 9].
The defendant was charged and convicted under South Korea’s Industrial Technology Protection Act, the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, and breach of trust statutes [4, 6, 9]. He was also accused of leaking details about next-generation memory technology involving Hybrid Bonding but was acquitted on this count because the technology had not been officially designated as "cutting-edge" by authorities at the time [4, 9].
Before the leak, the employee reportedly received a job offer from HiSilicon, a Huawei subsidiary [4, 6].
The court ruling was issued today, August 9, 2026, finalizing the case with the upheld sentence and ending the legal proceedings [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9].
