A Chinese national has been sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined ₩20 million ($14,400) for allegedly stealing semiconductor manufacturing technology from SK hynix. The employee, who worked at the chipmaker from 2013 before joining Huawei in 2022, printed around 4,000 pages of tech data from her workstation. The court found that she had likely removed the documents to use them at her new job, where she received a pay boost.
The investigation revealed that the employee had argued that she was printing the data for personal study and work transfer purposes, but the court did not accept these claims. The case highlighted the importance of protecting intellectual property in South Korea’s competitive semiconductor industry. This incident is part of a larger trend of chip engineers moving to rival companies, including Chinese and American firms.
Source: https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/08/sk_hynix_jailtime