Court sides with SK hynix against former researcher's move to Micron

The Seoul Central Court ruled in favor of SK hynix, which sought an injunction to prevent a former researcher from joining U.S. rival firm Micron.

SK hynix [NEWS1]

A Seoul court sided with SK hynix in its attempt to ban a former engineer from working for rival Micron.

The Seoul Central Court granted an injunction filed by SK hynix seeking to prevent a former researcher who specialized in premium high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, the company's core business, from working for the American rival, according to sources Thursday. If violated, a 10 million won ($7,500) fine will be imposed for each day.

The former employee was ordered not to provide any type of labor, service or consulting to Micron and its affiliates until July 26, according to the court's decision, because of the trade secrets that could have been acquired while working at SK hynix considering the time period and the position held there.

The acquired information could be used against SK hynix and "severely damage its competitiveness" if shared, while helping Micron to achieve the same level of business capacity in a short amount of time, the decision said.

When quitting SK hynix in July 2022, the researcher in question signed a non-compete agreement precluding a move to a job in the same industry for the next two years. After being hired as an executive at Micron before the two-year period, the Korean firm filed an injunction in August.

"We welcome the court's decision," SK hynix said.

"The decision is legitimate because dynamic random-access memory chip technology including the HBM is the nation's core technology."

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]