Court sides with bhc against BBQ over fried chicken recipe

By Jun Ji-hye

Korean fried chicken franchise BBQ has lost a lawsuit against a former employee who allegedly utilized internal information after moving to local rival bhc, according to industry officials Monday.

Seoul Eastern District Court found the 37-year-old employee, identified only by his surname Lee, not guilty, Sunday.

Lee had worked for the overseas division of BBQ run by Genesis BBQ until February 2014, but neither returned nor discarded 24 files stored on an external hard drive.

The information included BBQ's fried chicken recipe for which the firm received a patent, and feasibility review reports for businesses in Asian countries.

Lee then joined bhc in October 2015 and was alleged to have utilized the information, leading BBQ to file a complaint against him for malpractice.

The court said, however, that anyone can find BBQ's fried chicken recipe through a simple internet search as some BBQ stores have posted details such as the oil temperature and batter ratio on their own blogs.

“It is difficult to say that BBQ was the only source of the recipe,” the court stated.

The court noted other materials that Lee did not delete were of no benefit to bhc, either, as they had already been disclosed and included a number of errors, thus they were not deemed core assets of BBQ.

The court said franchise operators, unlike manufacturers, improve profits by increasing the number of franchise stores, thus a certain amount of businesses-related information is released in the process of attracting buyers.

The court added BBQ had not asked Lee to return or discard certain information before he left the company.

Regarding the issue, a BBQ official said, “We have yet to read the ruling,” refusing to provide any details as to whether the company plans to appeal to a higher court.