Recently, a legal testimony has revealed that Chinese memory chip manufacturer Changxin Storage Technology (CXMT) targeted Samsung’s core DRAM process technology early on in its establishment. The Chinese company is accused of stealing Samsung’s core technology, causing high concern in the South Korean technology industry, with calls for stronger penalties for leaking national core technology.
In a recent court trial at the Seoul Central District Court in South Korea, an engineer surnamed Jeon, who used to work for Samsung Electronics and later assisted in the establishment of Changxin Storage Technology, testified that when CXMT was founded in 2016, the company’s top management had no intention of independently developing, but rather aimed to steal Samsung’s core data.
Jeon stated, “At that time, CXMT had no research institutions or production facilities, and had no intention to develop technology through independent research.” After joining CXMT, he illegally obtained and utilized Samsung Electronics’ 18-nanometer DRAM process technology, and was sentenced to seven years in prison in the first trial in April last year.
The South Korean prosecution investigated this case from January 2024 to December last year, and concluded that Samsung Electronics’ 18-nanometer DRAM process technology, which took five years and an investment of about 1.6 trillion won to develop, had leaked to CXMT. The prosecution pointed out that CXMT recruited former Samsung executives and employees to modify and verify the leaked process information to adapt to local equipment, ultimately succeeding in mass-producing 10-nanometer class DRAM chips.
On the grounds of violating laws related to the leakage of national core technology, the prosecution has charged a total of 10 research and development personnel involved in the technology leakage, including Jeon. According to a lawyer quoted by the South Korean newspaper “Chosun Ilbo,” Samsung can file a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) under Section 337 of the Tariff Act seeking an exclusion order, prohibiting the importation of products involving misappropriation of trade secrets or patent infringement into the United States.
The lawyer pointed out that, “Even if CXMT does not directly export chips to the United States, as long as the related products are imported into the United States after being embedded as components in other products, it will still be considered as imports.”
Samsung can also file a civil damage compensation lawsuit in the U.S. federal district court; if the products are exported to other countries or regions, lawsuits can also be filed locally.