United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the nation’s second-largest contract chipmaker, and three of its employees were on Wednesday indicted for alleged theft and use of trade secrets from Micron Technology Inc’s local units in the latest row over escalating talent poaching.
UMC, Ho Chien-ting (何建廷), Wang Yong-ming (王永銘) and Rong Le-tien (戎樂天) allegedly illegally replicated Micron’s manufacturing techniques for the profit of UMC businesses in China, the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office said in its indictment.
UMC is developing DRAM chip manufacturing technologies in collaboration with China’s Fujian Jin Hua Integrated Circuit Co (晉華集成電路) via a Chinese subsidiary.
Photo: Hung Yu-fang, Taipei Times
UMC and its employees contravened the Trade Secrets Act (營業秘密法) and the Copyright Act (著作權法), prosecutors said.
In a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Wednesday, UMC said it had not received official notification of the indictment.
UMC would fully cooperate with any investigation and would hire lawyers to safeguard its interests, it added.
Micron said it aims to protect its intellectual property through the lawsuits.
The government’s enforcement of related rules would assure foreign investors who are interested in investing in Taiwan that their properties and interests would be fully safeguarded, it added.
Ho and Wang are former employees of Micron’s local unit, where Ho was a section chief and Wang a manufacturing deputy manager.
In November 2015, Ho joined UMC as technical manager for special projects.
Wang followed suit in March last year, joining UMC as a technical manager for components.
Ho stole classified trade secrets from Micron and used them at UMC, helping a UMC subsidiary in China manufacture memorychip wafers, prosecutors said.
Wang is suspected of stealing manufacturing technology and protocols, which he gave to Rong, a UMC technical division associate, to speed up the design of UMC’s process protocol, prosecutors said.
Micron in February filed a lawsuit after discovering that Wang had made electronic copies of company files, which he allegedly handed over to UMC.
Later that month, prosecutors raided UMC’s Tainan plant.
After learning about the search, Rong reportedly instructed Ho and Wang to delete all related information from the company’s database.
When questioned by prosecutors, Ho and Wang claimed that they took the data for personal research, while Rong said he only made suggestions to Wang on manufacturing design.
CAUTION: Wearing a mask in crowded places and for people with chronic illnesses or allergies can help prevent COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, the CECC said The mask mandate for outdoor settings is to lifted on Thursday, and the weekly cap on international inbound travelers is to be removed on Dec. 10, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said at its regular news conference yesterday. The center also announced that starting from Friday, children aged five to 11 can receive a COVID-19 vaccine booster, and that rules for visiting hospital patients are to be partially eased from Dec. 10. While wearing a mask will no longer be mandatory outdoors, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) reminded the public that it would still be required
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE: China might impose a blockade, conduct limited force operations, use an air and missile campaign, or resort to an invasion, the report said The US Department of Defense has identified four possible military courses of action that China could take against Taiwan, but did not offer any guess on when Beijing might be ready to act. In an annual report to the US Congress released on Tuesday titled Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2022, the department gave a broad overview of China’s military capabilities, strategy, ambitions and intentions. The report devoted significant space to developments related to Taiwan, against which it said China had intensified diplomatic, economic, political and military pressure last year. For example, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
ANALYSIS: The local elections showed that the KMT is a competitive player, but needs to work at changing its image regarding China, experts said The nine-in-one local election results would bolster the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), but are unlikely to have a major effect on the 2024 presidential election, when cross-strait issues are back in focus, political commentators said. In Saturday’s elections, the KMT won 13 of the 21 cities and counties up for grabs, including four of the country’s six biggest metropolitan areas, where nearly 70 percent of the population lives. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lost three of the seven cities and counties it held, although it gained Penghu County. Its poor results prompted President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to announce her resignation as party
PRESS FREEDOM: Britain called reports that a BBC journalist was beaten and detained ‘unacceptable’; China said the reporter did not present his credentials Chinese authorities yesterday eased some COVID-19 rules, but affirmed their severe “zero COVID” strategy after protesters demanded Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) resign in the biggest show of opposition to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in decades. The government made no comment on the protests or the criticism of Xi, but the decision to ease at least some of the restrictions appeared to be aimed at quelling anger. It was not clear how many people were detained since protests began on Friday and spread to cities, including Shanghai and Beijing. The city government of Beijing yesterday announced that it would no longer
RSS