Defending a large-scale criminal investigation into alleged theft of electric vehicle battery trade secrets

An electric vehicle battery manufacturer and its officers and employees came under criminal investigation for allegedly infringing a competitor's industrial technology and trade secrets.

This was a large-scale corporate criminal case concerning whether technical information had been leaked or misused when employees moved from the competitor, and the company and many of its officers and employees were investigated.

Attorney Jaehoon Lee handled the response to the criminal investigation for the company and all of the officers and employees under investigation.

The key issues were whether the technical information in question qualified as industrial technology or as a trade secret protected by law, and whether the acquisition and use of that information violated the relevant laws.

Other key issues were how each officer and employee had acquired and used the information, whether each was criminally liable, and whether criminal liability could be imposed on the company itself.

Attorney Lee analyzed the technical materials on electric vehicle batteries and reviewed the content and characteristics of the technical information, whether it qualified as a trade secret, and the requirements for criminal liability under the relevant laws. He also responded to the investigation by analyzing how the technical information had been acquired and used and the specific involvement of the officers and employees concerned.

In particular, with investigations of many officers and employees proceeding in parallel, he reviewed each person's duties, how each had accessed and used the technical information, and whether each could be held criminally liable, and responded to the investigation with the positions of the company and its officers and employees considered as a whole.

Of the 36 officers and employees under investigation, the prosecution decided not to indict 29 and indicted the remaining 7 without detention.

As a result, the criminal investigation of most of the officers and employees ended with decisions not to indict.