The current Act stipulates an act of unfairly using information which includes another person’s technical or business ideas with economic value in the process of negotiating or conducting transactions such as a business proposal, auction, and public offering for his/her business interests or the business interests of a third party in violation of the purpose of the provision or an act of providing such information to another person so that he/she can take advantage of it (hereinafter referred to as the “misappropriation”) as an act of unfair competition, and allows the Commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office, etc., to file a corrective recommendation such as business suspension for a violation by the party who has engaged in such an act of misappropriation. 

However, since a third party who receives and substantially uses the misappropriated idea does not fall within the scope of the parties engaged in unfair competition under the current Act, thus giving rise to the issue that the Commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office, etc., is unable file any corrective recommendation or make the announcement of the fact of corrective recommendation against the third party. 

Therefore, the Act aims to exclude a third party in good faith who receives and uses a misappropriated idea without knowledge, but include those who take business profits from the misappropriated idea within the scope of the parties engaged in the unfair competition, thereby allowing an administrative agency to take action such as filing a corrective recommendation and eliminating blind spots for the misappropriation of ideas. 

Article 8