Taiwan-based contract chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) yesterday was ordered to pay NT$20 million (US$719,269) by the Intellectual Property and Commercial Court (IPCC) after appealing a trade secret theft case brought by US-based memory chipmaker Micron Technology Inc.
The fine is subject to a two year probationary period. If the company does not contravene the law in that period, the fine is forgiven.
The ruling can be appealed.
The fine was handed down at a second trial held by the IPCC after the Taichung District Court in June 2020 fined UMC NT$100 million because it found the company and three of its employees guilty of using Micron trade secrets to the benefit of the Taiwanese contract chipmaker.
Additionally, three UMC employees — Rong Le-tien (戎樂天), Ho Chien-ting (何建廷) and Wang Yung-ming (王永銘) — had their jail sentences overturned or reduced.
Rong was found not guilty, while Ho and Wang received sentences of six months and one year respectively, with probationary periods of four and two years.
The sentences can be appealed.
The three men were originally sentenced to six years and six months, five years and six months, and four years and six months respectively by Taiwan Taichung District Court.
The Taichung court ruled that Ho and Wang, who worked for Micron Taiwan before they went to UMC as engineers in November 2015 and March 2016 respectively, leaked Micron trade secrets to the Taiwanese contract chipmaker.
Rong was accused of asking Wang and Ho to use Micron’s business information, to which the two had access, to roll out DRAM chips in a cooperative project with UMC’s Chinese partner Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co (福建晉華) in a bid to save expenses.
Prosecutors launched a probe into the alleged industrial espionage in February 2017 and charged UMC and the three employees the following September, citing breaches of the Trade Secrets Act (營業秘密法) for sharing the information with Jinhua.
After the latest ruling by the IPCC, UMC said that it is pleased with the verdict and thanked the court for a fair ruling.
UMC reached a settlement with Micron Technology Inc in November last year and said it hopes prosecutors would respect the latest ruling and close the case.
UMC said it would continue to optimize policies and measures for the protection of trade secrets.
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