A company employee, after resigning, created a service similar to our company's service. Can we respond on the basis of technology leakage?

Where an employee launches a similar service after resigning, whether you can take legal action for technology leakage or infringement of trade secrets depends on whether the technology in question is recognized as a 'trade secret' and whether that employee used it improperly.

To be recognized as a trade secret, the following three requirements must be satisfied.

Non-disclosure: the information must not be generally known to outsiders

Economic usefulness: it must have independent economic value

Secrecy management: reasonable measures must be taken to maintain its secrecy

In other words, technology is not recognized as a trade secret simply because it was used within the company; rather, measures such as access-authority management, confidentiality markings, security training, and non-disclosure agreements must have been systematically implemented in advance.

In addition, in order to take legal action, circumstances or evidence showing that the information was used through 'improper means' are required.

For example, this includes cases where a large volume of data was copied onto an external storage device just before resignation.

Accordingly, depending on the case, you may pursue a criminal complaint to investigative agencies or a civil claim for damages in parallel, through forensic analysis and a review of whether a trade secret is involved.

Our law firm collaborates with its digital forensics center and criminal law attorneys to support the prompt securing of evidence and the criminal response in technology-leakage cases involving former employees.

If necessary, please request a consultation with an attorney from the AI/IT group.