The local arm of Dow Chemical Co has sued a former executive for allegedly stealing confidential data in what could become Tai-wan's biggest industrial espionage case, a report said yesterday.
Tu Chung-hsien (杜宗憲), a former general manager who resigned in late June, was suspected of downloading more than 280,000 entries of high-tech information from the company's central database, a Chinese-language newspaper reported.
The database was estimated to be worth more than NT$20 billion (US$586 million), it said.
Dow Chemical, the world's fifth largest chemicals company, confirmed it was investigating an alleged breach of intellectual property rights (IPR) but denied media reports that the theft was worth about NT$20 billion.
"We are investigating a possible violation of IPR in Taiwan and at this stage unable to comment on specifics of [the] investigation," it said in a statement.
The newspaper report said Dow had filed a lawsuit against Tu for allegedly breaching trust and confidentiality.
Tu is believed to have fled to China early last month and Dow Chemical had asked Chinese police authorities to search for him, the report said. It had also asked China and Taiwanese authorities to bar Tu from traveling abroad, freeze his assets pending the investigation, it added.
Dow Chemical also has branch offices in major Chinese cities.
The stolen data could deal a severe blow to the chemical giant if wound up in the hands of its competitors, the paper said.
Dow Chemical reportedly invested about US$1 billion to develop the database, which covers its R&D plans and the latest information in the areas of chemistry, chemical engineering, petrochemical, medical and environmental sciences.
Dow Chemical is the biggest US chemical maker with more than US$33 billion in revenue last year. It established its Taiwan subsidiary in 1984. It also runs major centers in Shanghai, Bei-jing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
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