In a recent development regarding corporate trade secrets, Samsung Biologics has achieved a partial victory in its lawsuit against three former employees who moved to Lotte Biologics. The company accused the former employees of breaching trade secrets.

According to Money Today, a local news outlet, the Seoul Central District Court partly ruled in favor of the injunction application filed by Samsung Biologics against Lotte Biologics last Wednesday.

The ruling is related to the second injunction filed by Samsung Biologics, with Samsung Biologics filing a total of three injunctions against Lotte Biologics so far in June last year (Incheon District Court), February this year (Seoul Central District Court), and August (Seoul Eastern District Court).

After two hearings in May and June, the court ruled in favor of Samsung Biologics' claim regarding the trade secret violations. However, it dismissed the plea to prohibit the employees from joining Lotte Biologics.

A representative from Samsung Biologics confirmed the ruling.

"While we are gratified that the leaked materials have been recognized as trade secrets, it's unfortunate that our request for prohibiting the former employees from joining Lotte Biologics was not fully taken into consideration given the unique nature of the case which has even led to a criminal charge," the official told Korea Biomedical Review. "We plan to make an appeal regarding the ruling."

Regarding the ruling, a Lotte Biologics official stated that it is important to note that the court dismissed the plea to prohibit the employees from joining Lotte Biologics.

"The court dismissing the plea to prohibit the employees from joining Lotte Biologics shows that there were no unlawful acts recruiting such personnel," the Lotte Biologics official told Korea Biomedical Review. "This means that Samsung Biologics may face similar rulings if they file additional injunctions for other employees that moved to Lotte Biologics, which may lead to more people joining Lotte Biologics."

The official also stressed that regarding the use of trade secrets, all documents and information that the former Samsung Biologics employees had brought to Lotte Biologics had been confiscated by the prosecutors when they conducted the search and seizure last October.

"As a result, we do not have any related information with us," he said.

Meanwhile, this is the second instance of Samsung Biologics securing a court decision in its favor concerning trade secrets against Lotte Biologics.

Last year, Samsung Biologics filed an application for a preliminary injunction against three ex-employees who transferred to Lotte, and received a partial decision from the Incheon District Court in July last year.

The ruling meant that the three ex-Samsung employees who joined Lotte could not be able to utilize the core technology they learned at Samsung in the future.

In August and September of the same year, Samsung again filed criminal charges against four ex-employees who transferred to Lotte.

In March, the Incheon District Prosecutor's Office indicted one of them on charges of violating the Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act and embezzlement.

At the first trial in August, the accused employee reportedly argued that the documents he took were not trade secrets.

The two companies have been going against each other since 2022 as Lotte Biologics started its biopharmaceutical business in earnest.

Since its establishment in June 2022, Lotte Biologics has hired many of its positions with ex-Samsung Biologics employees.

Lotte Biologics CEO Richard Lee is a former Samsung Biologics executive who worked at Samsung Biologics from 2011 to 2021.

According to Saramin, a recruitment website, Samsung Biologics had 4,646 employees as of June, and Lotte Biologics, 64 employees as of March.