The South Korean subsidiary of General Motors on Wednesday welcomed a court ruling which bans a Russian carmaker's local unit from copying one of its models.

A Seoul court Tuesday accepted a petition by GM Daewoo which sought to prevent its products from being copied by TagAZ Korea.

The court banned TagAZ Korea from using or passing on trade secrets and from producing or selling engines and knockdown modules of its C-100 sedan.

Two former GM Daewoo employees now working for TagAZ Korea were arrested in September for allegedly leaking core technology to the Russian firm.

Investigators have said one of them is suspected of stealing 6000 computer files containing information on GM Daewoo's Lacetti.

They said the data is believed to have been used to develop TagAZ's C-100 model unveiled in Russia this summer.

The court acknowledged that TagAZ Korea "illegally obtained core product technology of GM Daewoo Lacetti and used it developing, manufacturing, selling and exporting C-100 vehicles, and prohibited listed illegal actions by a preliminary injunction," GM Daewoo said in a statement.

AFP

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