산업기밀 유출사건에서 유죄답변협상제도 도입에 대한 연구

초록

On April 11, 2021, in response to an incident such as the leakage of battery-related trade secrets, which Korean companies 'LG Energy Solution' and 'SK Innovation' had been fighting for about three years, “SK Innovation paid about 2 trillion won to LG Energy Solution. It agreed to withdraw all related domestic and international disputes and not to file additional disputes for the next 10 years.” Why did the U.S. government act as an arbitrator for trade secret infringement between Korean companies? Why did Korean companies proceed with litigation in the US instead of in Korea? There may be many reasons, but one important reason is that it is more advantageous for victims to file a lawsuit in the United States than to pursue a lawsuit related to trade secrets in South Korea. In other words, in a legal system without a discovery system, it is difficult to secure evidence to prove that an infringer has leaked industrial secrets, so it is unclear whether criminal punishment will be imposed. In the meantime, Korea has revised the Unfair Competition 「 Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act」 and the 「Act on Prevention of Divulgence and Protection of Industrial Technology」 in the direction of easing the requirements for “trade secrets” and reinforcing the penalties for criminal penalties to prevent infringement of industrial secrets. However, for these revised statutes to be effectively applied to actual trade secret cases, a method to secure sufficient evidence related to trade secret leaks had to be prepared, but institutional improvements were not made to increase the effectiveness of investigations. To increase the certainty of punishment for trade secret leakers and illegal trade secret acquirers, it is necessary to increase the efficiency of the investigation by using Plea Bargaining from the investigation stage related to trade secret leaks and to secure accomplices and evidence through the person who admitted the crime.

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