Kolmar Korea has emerged with a sweeping legal win in its yearslong battle over the alleged theft of proprietary sunscreen technology, after Korean courts affirmed both criminal guilt and civil responsibility and ordered the opposing side to bear the full cost of litigation.
The decision marks one of the clearest judicial endorsements yet of a domestic manufacturer’s claim that its research assets were unlawfully taken by competitors through departing employees.
Following a final ruling by the Supreme Court, Kolmar Korea said it recovered a total of about $21,500 in legal expenses from Intercos Korea, the local unit of Italy-based cosmetics manufacturer Intercos, and from former staff involved in the case. The amount represents the full civil costs the company said it incurred while pursuing the lawsuit.
At the center of the dispute were internal research materials tied to sun-care formulations, one of Kolmar Korea’s most competitive businesses.
According to court findings, a longtime Kolmar researcher who left the company in 2018 moved to Intercos Korea while in possession of sensitive development data, including proprietary sunscreen formulas and information related to new products. Authorities later determined that another former employee who joined the same company around that time also took part in leaking trade secrets.
In January 2024, South Korea’s Supreme Court finalized guilty verdicts against the two individuals. Several months later, in October, the Suwon District Court ruled that Intercos Korea violated the country’s Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act and imposed a criminal fine of about $3,450.
For Kolmar, the sequence of rulings provided validation not only of wrongdoing by individuals but of accountability extending to the corporate beneficiary.
“This decision reflects our principle that technology leakage must be pursued to the very end,” a Kolmar Korea spokesperson said. “We will continue taking necessary steps to safeguard our core technologies and research assets.”
The case has drawn attention across South Korea’s contract-manufacturing industry, where competition for formulators and researchers is intense and where intellectual property often moves with talent.
Kolmar Korea has invested heavily in building barriers around that knowledge base. The company established a specialized UV Tech Innovation Lab in 2022 and says it holds more than 100 patents tied to ultraviolet protection technologies.
Last year, it introduced what it described as the world’s first stabilization platform for hybrid sunscreens that blend mineral and chemical UV filters. Kolmar was also the first Korean company to secure U.S. FDA over-the-counter certification for sunscreen products, achieved in 2013.
Executives say such milestones help explain why enforcement has become a strategic priority. In a sector where formulations determine margins and brand relationships, losing control of proprietary data can erase years of research advantage.
With the courts now requiring the opposing side to shoulder the full financial burden of the case, Kolmar’s victory sends a broader signal: trade-secret disputes in Korea are increasingly ending not with quiet settlements, but with rulings that attach real economic consequences.
