The Fair Trade Commission has fully deployed "Technology Surveillance Officers"... to monitor large enterprises' technology theft behaviors in real time.

The Fair Trade Commission has appointed 12 industry experts as full-time monitoring officers to comprehensively strengthen the technology protection system for small and medium-sized enterprises, in order to preemptively prevent large companies from stealing technology. This is a proactive response considering the practical situation where it is difficult to report due to concerns about the leakage of technological information.

On November 4, the Fair Trade Commission officially appointed 12 “Small and Medium Enterprises Technology Protection Monitors” at the Fair Trade Mediation Institute in Jung-gu, Seoul, officially launching a regular monitoring system for the collaboration between the public and private sectors to prevent technology theft by large enterprises. The team of monitors includes professionals from various technological fields such as machinery, electrical electronics, automotive, and software, and they are selected for their on-site communication skills. They will particularly focus on identifying inappropriate requests for technical information or unauthorized use that may occur in the imbalanced cooperation relationship between large and small enterprises, and report these incidents to the Fair Trade Commission in real-time.

This move aims to address the existing limitations of the technical theft reporting mechanism that has not functioned effectively. Given that many small and medium-sized enterprises are afraid to report due to concerns about retaliation, the monitoring officer system is designed to establish a regular monitoring system through third-party peripheral channels. The Fairness Commission has also set up anonymous reporting centers in several institutions such as the Risk Enterprise Association to reduce the possibility of confidential leaks and improve the accessibility of reporting.

The law enforcement efforts will be simultaneously enhanced. Next year, the number of qualified investigators (such as patent agents and technical engineers) will be expanded, increasing the annual number of proactive investigations from the current 2 times to 3 times, and reorganizing the Technical Review Advisory Committee to establish a case review system that reflects technological trends. At the same time, there will be efforts to revise the Subcontracting Law, shifting the burden of proof for victims of technological theft from the current victim enterprises to the perpetrating enterprises. This measure aims to allow victim enterprises to obtain legal remedies without needing to gather evidence.

The Fairness Committee is long-term preparing a system mechanism to ensure that victimized enterprises receive substantial assistance. The plan is to promote loan support and litigation cost subsidies for victimized enterprises through a fund formed by fines. Additionally, industry observations will advance related legal revisions by introducing a Korean-style evidence disclosure system to reduce the burden of proof on victimized enterprises during the damage compensation request process.

Such technological protection enhancement measures are expected to go beyond protecting the technological competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises, becoming an opportunity to enhance the overall trust foundation of the industry. If the monitoring system of public-private cooperation effectively plays its role, it is likely to trigger a widespread awareness of the need to guard against unfair trading practices themselves.