Genesis BBQ (BBQ), a domestic chicken franchise, filed a lawsuit against bhc, which was once a subsidiary, saying, “It lost 100 billion won in losses due to loss of trade secrets,” but lost in the first trial.
On the 29th, the Civil Settlement Division 61 of the Seoul Central District Court (Chief Oh-seok Kwon) ruled against the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by BBQ against bhc and bhc Chairman Hyun-jong Park, including the prohibition of trade secret infringement.
BBQ claimed that bhc illegally accessed BBQ’s internal computer network and stole key trade secrets such as business manuals and recipes, and at the same time claimed compensation of 100.1 billion won, a part of about 700 billion won in damages. However, the court said, “The plaintiff’s specific materials cannot be regarded as meeting the requirements of ‘trade secret’ set by the law.”
BBQ is a bhc The two companies were once part of a group, but since BBQ sold the bhc to raise funds for overseas expansion in 2013, they have been in a legal dispute one after another. It is known that there are more than 20 legal battles between the two companies, including BBQ’s lawsuit against bhc’s executives and employees for violating trade secrets, and bhc’s lawsuit claiming that BBQ unilaterally terminated its logistics service and product supply contract.
Chairman Park Hyun-jong is also currently being tried in the Seoul Eastern District Court on charges of stealing BBQ employees’ personal information, accessing the BBQ’s internal computer network and illegally looking into internal data (violation of the Information and Communications Network Act).
BBQ, who lost the day, said, “We are very sorry for the verdict and will appeal immediately.”
Nasil Choi reporter verite@hankookilbo.com
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