Two former employees of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and a third suspect have been arrested for allegedly stealing the chipmaker’s proprietary technology, prosecutors in Taiwan said on Tuesday.
TSMC, which reported the case to prosecutors, said it had taken legal action against the staff after routine internal monitoring found they had been involved in “potential trade secret leaks”. Investigators have also searched the premises of Japanese chip tool maker Tokyo Electron in Taiwan.
The probe marks the first trade secrets case under Taiwan’s national security law since the country included provisions to protect key technologies in that legislation three years ago.