UMC handed TWD20 million for trade secrets theft lawsuit launched by Micron

　For the case Micron Technology Inc. (hereinafter referred to as “Micron”) brought against Taiwan-based United Microelectronics Corp (hereinafter referred to as “UMC”) for trade secret misappropriation, Taiwan Intellectual Property and Commercial Court (hereinafter referred to as the “IPC Court”) adjudicated on January 27, 2022 that the lower court’s judgment on this case should be vacated.  According to the IPC Court judgment, defendant, RONG Le-Tien was found not guilty, while defendant HO Chien-Ting and defendant WANG Yung-Ming were sentenced to one-year imprisonment and in addition thereto a fine of TWD1 million and six-month imprisonment and in addition thereto a fine of TWD1 million, respectively, and both of Ho and Wang were respectively granted a probation of 4 years and 2 years each.  UMC was ordered to pay TWD20 million subject to a two year probationary period.  

The IPC Court’s press release on this case is summarized below.

　As an important and international technology company, it is a matter of course that Micron Technology Inc. has been investing much manpower and resources in R&D and also has been concluding employment agreements and non-disclosure and intellectual property rights agreement with employees.  Moreover, Micron must have been reiterating in job training the importance of employees’ obligation of trade secrets protection so as to decrease and prevent leak of significant R&D assets as a result of employee’s negligence that would affect the company’s competitiveness.  In view of the foregoing, the IPC Court believed that defendant Ho and Wang must have signed the non-disclosure and intellectual property rights agreement with Micron, and in this regard, they were supposed to be aware of Micron’s rules and regulations about trade secrets protection.  Contrary to their confidentiality obligations, Ho reproduced and used Micron’s trade secrets that were supposed to be deleted and destroyed, and Wang did the same without authorization and further disclosed the design rule parameters of DR25nmS to Rong, the executive at UMC; such a leak has tremendously jeopardized Micron’s rights and interests and constituted the primary act that has been prohibited by the Trade Secrets Act since 2013.  Judging from Ho’s and Wang’s post-offense attitude and their criminal motives, purposes, and means of crime, the IPC Court imposed the aforesaid sentences and fines on the defendants.  

　During the trial proceedings of this case, UMC had reached a settlement with Micron, and Micron also dropped the lawsuit against the defendants with respect to the alleged offenses actionable with complaint and held no opinions on the lenient sentence on the defendants with respect to their offenses actionable without complaint.  In addition, as Ho and Wang have never received jail sentence (which can be substantiated by the Taiwan High Court’s records), the prosecutor agreed to the probation granted to the defendants who have pleaded guilty; also, UMC has sought to make amends as well.  From the probe and trial and the sentencing, the defendants should learn their lesson and this Court sees no likelihood of recommitment, and hence, probation granted to them should be appropriate.  This Court thus adjudicated as above with a view to bringing the defendants’ edification and self-correction.  Furthermore, in order to keep the defendants vigilant and learn their lessons and also to prevent their recommitment during the probationary period, the IPC Court advised pursuant to the 5^th subparagraph, 2^nd paragraph of Article 74 of the Criminal Code that Ho and Wang each should do community service for a designated government department, government institution, administrative entity, other public welfare organizations or groups for 200 hours and 100 hours, respectively.  (Released 2022.01.28)   

/CCS