Taiwan-based IC designer -MediaTek Inc (聯發科) said yesterday it would appeal against the sentence a former employee received for leaking trade secrets to a competitor.
In a verdict issued on Monday, the Taipei District Court sentenced a former MediaTek employee surnamed Yang to nine months in prison for leaking information to a MediaTek competitor. The sentence can be commuted to a fine of NT$270,000.
MediaTek said it would file an appeal because the ruling was too lenient and would encourage further violations of laws protecting trade secrets in the future, -potentially -setting off a cycle of vicious -competition within the sector.
In the case MediaTek had brought against Yang, the former employee was accused of illegally leaking the company’s trade secrets to rival MStar Semiconductor Inc (晨星半導體) in 2007, when he left MediaTek to work for MStar.
According to MediaTek, Yang, who was on MediaTek’s payroll between November 2005 and April 2007 before starting work at MStar in May 2007, collected confidential business information from MediaTek just before he left the company.
After Yang was employed by MStar, he used the secrets contained in his notebook computer on the job and also presented it in a briefing for MStar executives, MediaTek alleged.
Upset by the ruling, the company said confidential business information is an IC designer’s most important intangible asset, and if the law could not adequately protect companies’ trade secrets and other intellectual property, the sector’s survival would be threatened.
It also argued that the impact of the court decision would be felt not only by high-tech businesses, but also by the domestic economy across the board.
In a recent report released by IC Insights, MStar was expected to rank as the 13th-largest fabless IC provider in the world last year in terms of sales, while MediaTek was likely to rank fourth.
Meanwhile, Citigroup said in a client note on Tuesday that it had lowered its earnings forecasts for MediaTek this year and next year by 15 percent and 24 percent respectively, to reflect slower whitebox market growth and fiercer price competition.
“The market is now excited about MediaTek launching an Android phone chipset with a reference price of about US$100. Without a subsidy, US$100 is too expensive for the vast majority of whitebox handset customers, who normally pay below US$40 for whitebox handsets,” Kevin Chang (張凱偉) wrote in the note.
With severe price pressure from China’s Spreadtrum Communications Inc (展訊), Citigroup expects MediaTek’s baseband average selling price to decline another 25 percent this year from last year, the note said.
The brokerage also cut its target price for MediaTek to NT$243, from the NT$284 it set previously. Shares of MediaTek edged up 0.48 percent to NT$420 yesterday in Taipei trading.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KEVIN CHEN
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors