Chinese chip maker cleared of spying charges in US criminal trade secrets case
- A judge ruled that prosecutors failed to prove Fujian Jinhua misappropriated proprietary data from Micron, in a blow to the a US crackdown on IP theft by China
- The verdict is significant because while the US won numerous convictions of individuals in such cases, it has rarely prosecuted Chinese firms in US courts
A Chinese chip maker was cleared of economic espionage and other criminal charges in a setback for a US Justice Department crackdown on intellectual property theft by China.
More than five years after the Commerce Department blacklisted Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co. as a threat to national security, US District Judge Maxine M. Chesney in San Francisco found the company not guilty following a non-jury trial.
Her ruling on Tuesday may temper the Biden administration’s pursuit of aggressive prosecutions to protect American technology.
Chesney concluded that US prosecutors failed to prove that the Chinese state-sponsored company misappropriated proprietary data from Micron Technology Inc., American’s largest memory-chip maker, that allegedly passed through Taiwan’s United Microelectronics Corp. in a manufacturing deal with Fujian Jinhua.
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UMC assisted the Justice Department in its case against Fujian Jinhua after pleading guilty in 2020 to trade-secret theft and paying a US$60 million fine.
Had the company been convicted, Fujian Jinhua could have faced a fine, as well as an order requiring it to forfeit chips and income derived from the allegedly stolen technology, according to a Justice Department statement when the case was first filed.