DuPont and South Korean fiber maker Kolon Industries resolved a six-year trade-secret battle over Kevlar para-aramid technology on April 30, 2015, with Kolon pleading guilty in the Eastern District of Virginia to a single count of conspiracy to convert trade secrets and agreeing to pay $360 million. DuPont had filed the civil suit in 2009, alleging Kolon misappropriated confidential information about its bullet-resistant Kevlar fiber, and the Department of Justice's Intellectual Property Task Force secured a parallel Economic Espionage Act indictment against Kolon and five of its officers in August 2012. Under the plea agreement, Kolon was ordered to pay $275 million in restitution to DuPont and $85 million in criminal fines to the U.S. government, with additional confidential financial terms in the civil settlement. The criminal case took more than two years to advance because Kolon, as a foreign company, contested whether it had been properly served under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 4; service was ultimately effected in late 2014 through a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty with South Korea. The resolution stands as a leading precedent on cross-border service of criminal process against foreign defendants and on the use of the Economic Espionage Act to protect U.S. industrial technology.

Sources

• -https://www.orrick.com/en/insights/2015/05/kolon-finally-served-with-criminal-summons-in-korea-subsequently-settles-for-360-million
• -https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dupont-and-kolon-settle-trade-secret-litigation-300075313.html