Corporate tattlers hoping to profit by leaking trade secrets will face harsher penalties from next year-even if they have already left their company.

Armed with a tough new bill, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is going after former employees who even so much as verbally leak sensitive company information.

Under the bill to amend the Unfair Competition Prevention Law, employees who leak corporate intellectual property, including business strategies and policies, either here or overseas will face criminal charges.

The bill is primarily aimed at preventing hard-to-recover, state-of-the-art technology from ending up in the hands of overseas competitors.

Under the current law, criminal charges apply only if an employee leaks or hands over trade secrets domestically, or if a former employee hands over copies of company documents or storage discs containing sensitive data.

At present, those caught violating the law face up to three years in prison or a maximum fine of 3 million yen.

The bill to be submitted to the current Diet session extends those penalties to up to five years in prison or a maximum fine of 5 million yen.

It covers offenders overseas and anyone who tries to use privy information to secure jobs at rival companies.

Companies that accept or seek inside information by intentionally scouting employees from competitors will also be punishable under the revamped law.

The ministry is aiming to have the revisions in place by next January.(IHT/Asahi: January 24,2005)