Monday, October 22, 2007

South Korea - IPR

WiBro Tech Leakers Sentenced to Prison

A court has delivered prison sentences to former researchers who tried to steal Korean-developed WiBro technology, the third-generation global standard wireless broadband technology.

The Seoul Central District Court said Sunday that it sentenced a former researcher from Korean IT company POSDATA to three years in prison for attempting to sell the company's core WiBro technology to a U.S. firm.

It also sentenced four other accomplices to 18 to 30 months in prison with a stay of execution for three to four years and 120-160 hours of public service.

The researchers were accused of stealing the technology through external hard drives and email from last September to March of this year and leaking it to a company they established in the U.S.

According to prosecutors, the leakers planned to headhunt some 30 researchers from POSDATA, offering high salaries and stock options as incentives, to complete the technology and then sell it to a U.S. communications company for W180 billion (US$1=W916).

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