Starting on the 28th of this month, individuals who report or contribute to preventing the overseas leakage of corporate trade secrets in Korea will be eligible for rewards of up to 200 million won.
The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced Thursday that it will enforce amendments to the Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act, along with its enforcement decree and rules, including a reward system for reporting overseas leakage of trade secrets. Under the previous Unfair Competition Prevention Act, rewards were only available for reports concerning counterfeit products. The revised law expands the scope of reward recipients to include those who report or make decisive contributions to preventing crimes involving the overseas leakage of domestic companies' trade secrets. The decision on whether to pay a reward and the amount will be made comprehensively, taking into account whether the report or contribution served as a critical lead in an actual investigation.
The industry has long pointed to the need for active measures to prevent the overseas leakage of technology. According to the National Intelligence Service, the number of detected cases of overseas industrial technology leakage rose from 17 in 2020 to 23 in 2024. When confidential information such as product blueprints, process technology, and manufacturing know-how flows overseas, companies can lose competitiveness built up over years of time and investment in an instant. The damage can extend to weakening the industrial ecosystem and undermining national competitiveness. KIPO expects that the implementation of the reward system for preventing overseas leakage of trade secrets will provide an economic incentive to encourage voluntary reporting by insiders, helping to deter technology leaks and block damage at an early stage.
"Overseas leakage of trade secrets is a serious crime that can shake national competitiveness and economic security," KIPO Commissioner Kim Yong-sun said. "The implementation of this reward system will serve as a turning point in raising awareness that technology leakage is not just a corporate issue but a challenge that the state and the public must address together."
