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In Korea, various systems such as the Criminal Act, Unfair Competition Prevention Act, Industrial Technology Protection Act, and the SME Technology Protection Act are being implemented to prevent technology leaks through trade secret protection, but they have not brought about substantial legal protection. The reason is, first, the unclear concept of terminology in trade secret-related laws. As a result, there are cases where criminal punishment cannot be carried out even in cases where there is a high possibility of blame. Second, the legal system related to trade secret protection is focused on punishment-oriented follow-up measures, and regarding the preventive aspect, although it contains contents such as imposing security measures on companies or secret managers or conducting fact-finding surveys, the actual preventive effect is not taken into consideration. Third, there is no doubt that trade secrets have some kind of property value, but since they are not registered, disclosed, or exclusive rights, the above civil and criminal remedies are ex post facto and indirect, and the reality is that the effectiveness of relief is insufficient due to difficulties in proving it. Therefore, in this study, we review the trade secret protection provisions of the criminal law and, after considering the problems with the criminal law provisions, we will analyze the provisions on trade secret protection in the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, the Industrial Technology Protection Act, the SME Technology Protection Act, and the Defense Industry Technology Protection Act, and then present the problems of related laws.
Lee et al. (Sun,) studied this question.