1. Whether it constitutes trade secrets;

A. “Business secrets” under Article 2 subparag. 2 of the former Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act (amended by Act No. 13081, Jan. 28, 2015; hereinafter “Unfair Competition Prevention Act”) refers to production methods, sales methods, and other technical or business information useful for business activities, which are kept confidential by considerable effort, and has an independent economic value. (The current Act changed the term “reasonable efforts” to “reasonable efforts.” Here, the term “patents are not known to the public” means that information is not known to many and unspecified persons, such as publications, and thus, it is difficult to obtain information without going through a holder.

“An independent economic value” means that the owner of information can obtain competition benefits from competitors or requires expenses or efforts for the acquisition or development of information through the use of information, and that “the information shall be kept confidential by considerable effort” means a state in which it is recognizable that information is kept confidential, such as indicating or notifying that the information is confidential, imposing a duty to maintain confidentiality on those who have access to the information, or persons who have access to the information, etc. (see, e.g., Supreme Court Decision 2008Do3435, Jul. 10, 2008). (b) The lower court determined that the instant data, such as a can compression map, etc., are independent economic value without being disclosed and has independent economic value, and thus, constitutes a business secret that is maintained confidential by considerable effort.

(1) Defendant B and C Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “victim”).