A Seoul court favored SK hynix Inc., which asked to ban its former researcher from working for its industry competitor amid suspicion of technology leakage, according to sources on Thursday.

Sources from the legal and chip industries noted that the Seoul Central District Court granted SK hynix’s request for a temporary ban on the transfer of the former employee to U.S. chip company Micron Technology Inc. last week.

Under the court’s decision, the former SK hynix employee should pay 10 million won ($7,530) per day if found to have violated the transfer ban.

The employee formerly held responsibilities in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and DRAM design at SK hynix for a considerable period of time.

Currently, the individual serves as an executive at Micron.

The court ordered that the former SK hynix employee be barred from engaging in employment, work, and/or providing consultation, labor, or services at Micron and its branches, offices, and affiliates until July 26.

The court cited a significant risk of technology leakage in its decision.

“Any technology leakage would benefit Micron by enabling it to significantly shorten the time to acquire capabilities equivalent to SK hynix in the same field, while causing significant damage to SK hynix‘s competitiveness,” the court said.

The former SK hynix employee retired in July 2022, having signed a confidentiality agreement since 2015. By the time of the retirement, the individual had also signed a non-transfer agreement and a national core technology confidentiality agreement, all of which were violated.

SK hynix launched a legal action in August 2023, immediately after confirming the individual’s employment at Micron.

It is widely believed in the industry that Micron‘s successful strategies, such as skipping fourth-generation HBM3 production and transitioning directly to the fifth-generation HBM, which enhanced its presence in the HBM market, were largely attributed to its talent poaching.

Micron announced last month that it has begun mass production of its fifth-generation product, the HBM3E.

By Seong Seung-hoon, Park Min-ki and Chang Iou-chung

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]