US charges four engineers with stealing chip designs to sell to rival Chinese start-up
The four are also accused of trying to lure investors to the start-up that would have competed with their former US employer, Applied Materials
Four former engineers at Applied Materials were charged by the US with trying to steal chip designs from the semiconductor equipment giant to sell them to a Chinese start-up, which may fuel fears the world’s second-largest economy is resorting to illegal tactics to break its dependence on chip imports.
Liang Chen, Donald Olgado, Wei-Yung Hsu and Robert Ewald are accused of downloading data from Applied’s internal engineering database, including more than 16,000 drawings, and plotting to lure investors to fund a US and China-based start-up that would compete with their former employer, prosecutors said in a statement.
The stolen specs detailed Applied’s processes for high-volume manufacturing of chips used to light and electrify flat-screen TVs and smartphones.
If convicted, the four face as long as 10 years in federal prison for each of 11 counts of possessing stolen trade secrets. They’re expected to be arraigned on December 15 in San Jose, California.
“Applied Materials vigorously safeguards its intellectual property from theft or unlawful use,” a spokesman for the company said in a statement. “We support the legal action in this criminal case to ensure that anyone who obtained our trade secrets illegally is brought to justice. We cannot comment further on pending legal actions.”