A Seoul court on Thursday found two officials at the South Korean unit of Huawei Technologies Co. not guilty of stealing confidential information about a key mobile communications technology from a rival company.

The Seoul Central District Court handed down the verdict to a Huawei Korea executive, identified only by his surname, Kang, and vice president surnamed Kim. The verdict also applies to Huawei's Seoul unit.

Kang and Kim were charged in 2016 with stealing information about equipment related to the long-term evolution technology from Ericsson-LG, Kang's workplace before he moved to Huawei in 2014.

The two have known each other since college and Kim had apparently offered Kang the job at Huawei.

The court cited a lack of corroboration in substantiating that the leaked information had been classified by the company as confidential. It also noted that some of the information is even accessible via the Internet.

"Anyone working in the field may easily get hold of the information, which leads to a conclusion that it is difficult to acknowledge its commercial value," the court said.

The court, however, found Kang guilty of deliberately leaving Ericsson-LG with company documents and causing damages to the firm.

On the count of breach of trust, the court sentenced Kang eight months to prison, suspended for two years. (Yonhap)