Korea charges three ex-employees over chip-test technology leak

The Korea Intellectual Property Office said Wednesday that three former employees of a South Korean semiconductor equipment maker have been charged with leaking the company's core chip-testing technology for use in overseas production.

One of them, a 45-year-old identified only by the surname A, was arrested and indicted, while two others, surnamed B and C, both 40, were charged without detention. The technology police have requested a red notice from Interpol for a 58-year-old former executive, surnamed D, who has fled overseas, and plan to pursue the investigation as soon as he is taken into custody.

The suspects are accused of conspiring with an overseas distributor for the victim company to set up a foreign manufacturer and use the Korean company's design drawings and technical data to produce and supply products abroad between November 2023 and February 2026. They were investigated after taking jobs at the overseas manufacturer in November 2023 on D's proposal, at twice their previous salaries.

The technology at issue is probe-card equipment, which inspects semiconductor chips for defects while they are still on the wafer. US and Japanese companies have long dominated that market, and the victim company succeeded in localizing the technology and went on to develop equipment for testing high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, supplying major chipmakers at home and abroad. It estimates it stands to lose 40 billion won ($29.8 million) in annual revenue if it loses overseas markets because of the crime.

Investigators began looking into the case in July 2025 after a tip from the National Intelligence Service, but faced difficulties because the suspects were staying abroad. Working with the intelligence agency, they found signs that the overseas manufacturer set up by the suspects was using domestic supply chains for procurement and design work, and raided a domestic design company in July 2026 to seize the victim company's design drawings and technical data.

Jeong Yeon-woo, deputy head of the Korea Intellectual Property Office, said preventing leaks matters more than catching those responsible after the fact.

"Because a company's core technology cannot be recovered once it leaks overseas, catching technology-leak offenders is important, but blocking leaks in advance is even more important," he said.

He added that the office will respond strictly to overseas technology leaks through thorough investigations and will pursue institutional changes to toughen penalties for leaks abroad and to allow punishment of foreign companies that take part in such crimes.