TOKYO (Reuters) -Tokyo Electron has not confirmed any organisational involvement following the indictment of a former employee in Taiwan for alleged theft of trade secrets from TSMC, the Japanese chipmaking equipment maker said on Thursday.
Taiwan prosecutors said on Wednesday that they had indicted three people in the TSMC trade secrets case, accusing them of conspiring to use the information to help Tokyo Electron compete for TSMC supplier deals for the 2-nanometer process.
The defendants included a former TSMC employee, surnamed Chen, who after joining Tokyo Electron had solicited help from his former colleagues for the information on TSMC’s technology trade secrets, the prosecutors said.
Tokyo Electron said its investigation has “not confirmed any organisational involvement, such as instructions encouraging the inappropriate acquisition of information by the said former employee, nor any leakage of related confidential information to outside parties”.
The manufacturer, a major supplier of equipment for processes such as deposition and etching to chipmakers, said earlier this month that it had dismissed the employee.
TSMC’s 2-nanometer process refers to the company’s advanced technology for chipmaking.
Prosecutors have said they are recommending a combined 14-year prison term for Chen for violating Taiwan’s trade secrets and national security laws.
The case is the first brought under Taiwan’s National Security Law involving the theft of core technologies.
(Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
