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[Apha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Paul Lee] Kolmar Korea has won a "no infringement of trade secrets" lawsuit against the Korean subsidiary of Italian cosmetics manufacturer Intercos.
According to Korea Kolmar on the 11th, the Civil Affairs Department 62 (Senior Judge Lee Young-kwang) of the Seoul Central District Court ruled in favor of Korea Kolmar in the first trial of a civil suit filed by Korea Kolmar against Intercos Korea and former researchers, including a ban on infringement of trade secrets. The court ruled that Kolmar Korea's trade secrets leaked to former employees and Intercos Korea should be discarded and 200 million won and delayed interest should be paid.
Mr. A, who joined Kolmar Korea in 2008, worked for 9 years and 4 months I resigned in January 2018 due to immigration to the United States. However, A moved to the Korean subsidiary of Intercos, an Italian cosmetics company, just a week after leaving the company. Mr. A took hundreds of major work files of sunscreen technology from his laptop used in Kolmar Korea without permission by uploading them to Google Drive. B, who worked for Kolmar Korea from 2007 to 2012, also joined Intercos Korea in 2018 and attempted to leak core technologies in a dishonest way.
Intercos Korea did not manufacture and sell suncare products until 2017, but began making suncare products after 2018 when A joined the company. Intercos Korea's sales of suncare products that occurred that year amounted to about 46 billion won. In addition, Intercos Korea completed 44 screening cases related to Sun Care in 2018 alone, and the court judged that the product was made using stolen trade secrets.
Earlier in the second trial of the criminal suit, A and B were sentenced to 10 months in prison, 6 months in prison, and 2 years in probation, respectively. Intercos Korea was also fined 10 million won.
AlphaBIZ 김지선(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
