[Edaily Kim Hyun-ah Reporter] The competition to secure domestic artificial intelligence (AI) talent is escalating into legal disputes. It has been confirmed that the LG Corp.(003550) AI Research Institute and the Ministry of Science and ICT’s “Independent AI Foundation Model (Dokpamo)” project have each filed for preliminary injunctions against individual researchers who moved to Upstage and a former executive who joined #KTCorporation, respectively.

As legal actions aimed at restricting the employment of AI talent continue to mount, there is a growing clash between individuals’ freedom to choose their careers and change jobs and companies’ need to protect trade secrets. The Upstage case is particularly noteworthy because it involves a junior researcher in his second year of a master’s program who was part of a national AI project.

LG Corp. filed a provisional injunction against Mr. A, who had participated in the Dokpamo Project, after he moved to Upstage last April. The court ruled that LG Corp.’s evidence regarding concerns over trade secret infringement was insufficient and dismissed the application in its entirety; LG Corp. is currently preparing an appeal.

LG Corp. and Upstage: “Core Know-How” vs. “A Second-Year Master’s Student”

LG Corp. claimed that this lawsuit is a measure to protect core technologies. The company explained that Mr. A acquired core know-how—including the model development process, data composition, and parameter design—during the development of the Dokpamo model (K-EXAONE 2.0), and that the experimental and failure experiences accumulated during the fine-tuning process also constitute important R&D assets.

LG Corp. stated, “Mr. A was evaluated as a key research personnel and received retention bonuses and awards; we even offered improved terms of employment shortly before his resignation, but he moved to Upstage while the second phase of the Dokpamo project was underway.” LG Corp. explained that it enforced a non-compete agreement to prevent a competitor from acquiring confidential know-how through key personnel.

Upstage, however, countered, “Mr. A applied directly through an open recruitment process, and his compensation package is no different from that of second-year employees at our company.” They further stated, “The employee in question is a junior developer responsible for the practical aspects of AI model post-training, and, moreover, is handling a different technical area from the post-training work he handled at his previous employer, so this has absolutely no connection to technology infringement or the leakage of know-how to other companies.”

Regarding the fact that Mr. A was listed as a contributor in both the LG Corp. AI Research and Upstage Dokpamo AI model technical reports for the second round of screening, Upstage maintains that it is willing to disclose all technical details for verification.

Lawsuit

Over

Former LG Corp. AI Research Executive’s Move to KTCorporation

Also Underway A separate preliminary injunction proceeding regarding a non-compete clause is underway concerning

the move of

former

LG Corp. AI Research executive

Mr. B

to KTCorporation

.

LG argued that Mr. B was involved in major AI projects—including the Dokpamo project, LG Uplus’s “Exio,” and the AI Customer Contact Center (AICC)—and thus had gained insight into the group’s AI business strategy and core information. LG stated that after Mr. B left the company, it notified KTCorporation of the non-compete agreement and requested that KTCorporation refrain from hiring him; when this request was not accepted, LG filed for a preliminary injunction against Mr. B personally.

Mr. B was not appointed as the head of KTCorporation’s AX Future Technology Institute, as initially reported, but rather as the head of the Convergence Innovation Office at KTCorporation Estate, where he is in charge of real estate AX operations. While LG Corp. believes this personnel decision may have been made to circumvent the non-compete agreement, regardless of his actual duties, KTCorporation maintains that “he went through an open competitive hiring process and there are no legal or contractual issues.” The first-instance trial is currently underway.

Both cases share the commonality that LG AI Research sought a non-compete order against an individual who left LG Corp., rather than against a competitor’s corporate entity. LG Corp. maintains that these are measures to protect core technologies and trade secrets, while Upstage and KTCorporation counter that there is no technology leakage or contractual issue, citing open recruitment procedures and job scopes as grounds.

SKTelecom, Upstage, and LG Corp.—all of which passed the second round of the “Dokpamo” evaluation—will each receive approximately 40 billion won in national funding and 1,000 GPUs. While the government is supporting AI model development by investing tens of billions of won in national funds and computing resources per company, these firms are simultaneously engaged in fierce competition for the same talent. As competition surrounding the national AI project intensifies, these two lawsuits are expected to serve as important precedents for determining the extent of legal protection available regarding corporate R&D, the protection of trade secrets, and researchers’ freedom to change jobs.