Two former Transmeta Corp workers pleaded not guilty to charges they stole trade secrets from the computer-chip maker and Sun Microsystems Incs to help a Chinese company manufacture microprocessors.
The case against Fei Ye and Ming Zhong is the second time the US government has brought charges under the economic espionage provisions of a 1996 act intended to protect trade secrets. To win a conviction, the government must prove the men stole the trade secrets with the intent to benefit China. The Chinese government hasn't been accused of wrongdoing.
A federal grand jury in San Jose, California, on Wednesday indicted Ye and Zhong on 10 counts related to stealing schematics and technical information from Transmeta, Sun, Trident Microsystems Inc and NEC Corp for Hangzhou, China-based Supervision Inc.
Ye's lawyer, Paul Meltzer, said the men are wrongly accused and has sought an independent review. ``We do not believe these are proprietary secrets,'' he said.
Supervision, which is also known as Hangzhou Zhongtian Microsystems Company Ltd, had applied for funding from the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China. The company received funding from the city of Hangzhou and Ye and Zhong were working with a professor at Zhejiang University, according to the indictment. They were arrested in November 2001 while boarding a flight to China.
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