A former semiconductor-equipment development team leader has been sentenced to one year in prison for taking control software from his previous employer and using it at a competing company. The Suwon District Court also sentenced the rival company's representative to eight months in prison. The corporate defendant was fined 75 million won.
The case centers on programmable logic controller software used to operate semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Prosecutors said the former team leader left his previous job in September 2017 without returning the program and later used it at the competitor. The court treated the conduct as both a breach of occupational duty and a violation of South Korea's unfair-competition protections.
The ruling highlights how industrial intellectual property disputes can extend beyond patents or source code sold on the open market. Control programs embedded in manufacturing equipment can carry years of process knowledge and engineering work. For semiconductor suppliers, the case is a reminder that employee departure procedures, access control and documentation around proprietary production software can become central evidence when technical know-how moves between competitors.