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Foundry UMC (2303-TW) announced today (22) that it has reached a settlement with the Department of Justice in relation to the US Department of Justice suing the company for violating the Federal Secrets Protection Act. Commercial. He admitted that he violated a trade secret and agreed to pay the US government $ 6,000 10,000 (approximately NT $ 1,717 billion) in fines and cooperation with the Ministry of Justice during the three-year trial period.
In the settlement agreement, the Justice Department agreed to drop the original allegations against UMC, including conspiracy to commit economic espionage, conspiracy to steal a number of Micron trade secrets, patent-related charges, and possible damages ranging from $ 400 million to 8.75 billion US dollars and Fines, etc. UMC admitted to breaching a trade secret, agreed to pay a fine of US $ 60 million, and cooperated with the Ministry of Justice within a three-year trial period.
In May 2016, UMC was approved by the Investment Review Committee of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and signed a cooperation agreement with Fujian Jinhua. Under the agreement, UMC and Jinhua jointly developed two generations of DRAM manufacturing processes. UMC stated that the DRAM process developed in the agreement is not the latest technology, but rather an old technology similar to the technology used in mass production in 2012.
UMC noted that it was openly recruiting engineers for the DRAM cooperation case at the time, and no employees were allowed to bring previous company information to UMC, and there were a number of protective and preventative policies and measures for their own trade secrets. and others, but two Taiwanese were involved in the DRAM cooperation case A former Micron employee violated the employment contract and statement signed with UMC, entered UMC with the information of his former company and used it as a reference at work.
UMC emphasized that when the company becomes aware of the above, it will immediately take the necessary measures to confirm that the developed process technology does not contain any unauthorized information. The first generation DRAM process technology mentioned in the cooperation agreement was transferred to Jinhua under the agreement in September 2018. UMC has never intended and has not transferred any unauthorized information to Jinhua.
However, according to the US Trade Secrets Protection Act, even if an employee violates company policy without the knowledge of the company’s top management, the company must take legal responsibility for the behavior of the employee. employee. Therefore, in the settlement agreement, UMC acknowledges and accepts the responsibility caused by the violation of the law by the employees.
Regarding the settlement of this case with the US Department of Justice, Hong Jiacong, President of UMC, said that he is very pleased to reach an agreement with the US government and will continue to provide products and services. competitive in various fields in the future.
Hong Jiacong also said that it will continue to implement and strengthen relevant trade secret protection and prevention policies and measures, including confidential information monitoring mechanisms, intellectual property protection education, training and audits, to ensure that daily operations comply with with the intellectual property rights and the company’s information security protection policies.
More than a third of UMC’s revenue comes from the United States. Has long-term business relationships with US customers and suppliers. Recently, it has cooperated with US companies to produce semiconductor chips in respirators needed to combat COVID-19.
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