Kolon charged with stealing DuPont's Kevlar secrets

The charges were announced by U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Neil H. MacBride; Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; and Jeffrey C. Mazanec, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Richmond Field Office.

 

Kolon Industries Inc. and several of its executives and employees have been indicted for allegedly engaging in a multi-year campaign to steal trade #

“Kolon is accused of engaging in a massive industrial espionage campaign that allowed it to bring Heracron quickly to the market and compete directly with Kevlar,” said U.S. Attorney MacBride.  “This country’s greatest asset is the innovation and the ingenuity and creativity of the American people.  The genius of free enterprise is that companies compete on the excellence of their ideas, products and services – not on theft.  This indictment should send a strong message to companies located in the United States and around the world that industrial espionage is not a business strategy.”

 

Kolon Industries Inc. and several of its executives and employees have been indicted for allegedly engaging in a multi-year campaign to steal trade #

“By allegedly conspiring to steal DuPont’s and Teijin’s intellectual property, Kolon threatened to undermine an economic engine at both companies,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. “Developing Kevlar and Twaron was resource-intensive work, and required strategic investment and ingenuity.  Kolon, through its executives and employees, allegedly acted brazenly to profit off the backs of others. The Justice Department has made fighting intellectual property crime a top priority, and we will continue to aggressively prosecute IP crimes all over the country.” 

 

Kolon Industries Inc. and several of its executives and employees have been indicted for allegedly engaging in a multi-year campaign to steal trade #

“It’s critical that law enforcement aggressively investigate crimes of intellectual property theft, such as this one,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Mazanec.  “If not, intellectual creativity and our economy will be compromised.  As a member of the Department of Justice Task Force on Intellectual Property, our office will investigate any company, domestic or international, that steals confidential proprietary information for their own benefit.  We will pursue those that prey on the originality and vision of hardworking businesses who conduct their own research, obtain patents and market a successful product.” 

 

Kolon Industries Inc. and several of its executives and employees have been indicted for allegedly engaging in a multi-year campaign to steal trade #

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