영업비밀 침해에 대한 형사규정 적용 실태 및 개선방안

In spite of the strengthening of criminal punishment and security measures against the illegal industrial technology outflow, the number of technology leak crime has been increased consistently. This study tried to extract the practical problems and suggest the amendment alternatives for the Trade Secret Protection Law by analysing 220 criminal cases of technology outflow crime during 2007-2010. The result of analysis showed that the average period of sentences was relatively short and about 80% of imprisonment sentences was suspended the execution. That means the courts were relatively generous to the technology leak crime and there were not much common understanding on the criteria of determination of punishment. There are not many fine sentence cases and it could be derived from the difficulty of assessment of the amount of monetary damage or criminal gain. The majority of non-guilty cases were related to the concept of trade secret provided by the provisions of the Trade Secret Protection Law. To promote the efficiency of the Law and punishment, the concept of trade secret needed to be clarified and simplified through amending the Law. And the fine clause of the Law also suggested to be amended so that it was possible to sentence fine punishment without difficulty of calculating the criminal gain. In much portion of trade secret infringement cases, occupational breach of trust and infringement of a computer program copy right were concurred at the same time. This result suggests that the trend of the development of IT technology which has been influenced the means and a mode of technology outflow crime should be taken into consideration and reflected current legislation to promote efficiency of technology leak preventing legal system.