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.
Restaurant chain Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) today announced it is to close 14 stores in northern China, completely exiting the market by the end of October. Beijing Hengtaifeng Catering Co (北京恆泰豐餐飲), which operates Din Tai Fung restaurants in northern China, said its 20-year operating license expires this year. As the board was unable to reach a consensus on continuing operations, its 14 restaurants in the region are to close by Oct. 31, it said. The company apologized for the inconvenience and disappointment the news would cause among its customers, and said it would provide compensation for its workers. “We continue to be optimistic about
EXPANDING: The European Commission has contributed 5 billion euros in state aid to TSMC’s 12-inch wafer fab in Dresden, Germany, which broke ground on Tuesday Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Saturday said that it has received a total of NT$62.5 billion (US$1.95 billion) in subsidies from China and Japan since 2022. In the first half of this year, TSMC received NT$7.96 billion in subsidies from China and Japan after receiving about NT$47.55 billion last year and obtaining NT$7.05 billion in 2022, financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed. The company, which makes about 90 percent of the world’s high-end semiconductors, said the subsidies were used to finance its investments in Kumamoto, Japan, and Nanjing, China. TSMC owns a 12-inch wafer fab in
STRATEGIC SHIFT: Diversifying away from the volatile flat-panel industry, AUO aims to boost sales contribution from non-panel business to half of total revenue by 2027 AUO Corp (友達) yesterday said it has agreed to sell its idled manufacturing facility and land in Tainan to Micron Technology Inc for NT$7.4 billion (US$231.8 million) as the company shifts strategy to reduce the impact from the boom-and-bust flat-panel display industry. The company expects to book NT$4.17 billion in disposal gains from the sale, it said in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing. The Tainan factory produced color filters used in monitors, notebook computers and flat-panel TVs before being shut down last year, as AUO sought to optimize its asset utilization. The company has been striving to diversify and broaden its business
Micron Technology Inc has reportedly set its sights on two facilities owned by flat-panel maker AUO Corp (友達) after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) recently clinched a deal to buy a facility and equipment from Innolux Corp (群創), another major flat-panel maker. Micron, the world’s third-largest memorychip maker, is expected to purchase two AUO plants in Tainan to expand its advanced chip packaging and testing services and high-bandwidth memory production, local media reports said. The two plants were shut down in August last year and AUO is seeking to dispose of the facilities, the reports said. They are expected to cost Micron