Samsung's Foldable Screen Tech Has Been Stolen, Sold To China (cnn.com)

Prosecutors in South Korea say that Samsung's latest bendable screen technology has been stolen and sold to two Chinese companies. "The prosecutors allege that a Samsung supplier leaked blueprints of Samsung's 'flexible OLED edge panel 3D lamination' to a company that it had set up," reports CNN. "That company then sold the tech secrets to the Chinese firms for nearly $14 million, according to the prosecutors." CNN reports: The Suwon District Prosecutor's Office charged 11 people on Thursday with stealing tech secrets from Samsung, the office said in a statement. They did not name the people or companies involved in the theft. Samsung Display, a subsidiary of the South Korean conglomerate, said in a statement Friday that it was "surprised and appalled at the results of the investigation by prosecutors."

Prosecutors said Samsung invested six years and some 150 billion won ($130 million) to develop the bendable screen. Investigators have not been able to track down and question two Chinese individuals believed to be involved in the case, and have asked Interpol to help find and detain them. Of the 11 people indicted, three have been detained.

Comments

Re:I'm torn

[Immerman]

Well, keep producing it as quickly at least - it's not like technology doesn't advance without patents, they just provide added incentive to a game that already rewards the first mover. (And there's even some case studies suggesting they might actually be a net loss, though I suspect those are a bit overly optimistic)

Also, there's no such thing as Intellectual Property. There's patents, trademarks, and copyright - three completely unrelated classes of artificially protected work, none of which bears any similarity to property. IP is a term coined by vested interests in increasing protections in order to create a false equivalency to falsely skew the political conversation in their favor.