SCMP: Employee of chip equipment giant ASML accused of stealing company secrets went to Huawei: report

[Hamartia Antidote]

ASML employee accused of data theft went to Huawei: report

A former employee of ASML Holding, who was accused of stealing trade secrets from the manufacturer of the world’s most advanced semiconductor-making equipment, later worked for Huawei Technologies, according to a Dutch media report.

www.scmp.com

• A former China-based ASML employee accused of misappropriating company data later moved to Huawei, according to a Dutch news report
• The chip in Huawei’s new Mate 60 Pro smartphone is believed to be made using a DUV machine rather than ASML’s more advanced EUV machine

A former employee of ASML Holding accused of stealing trade secrets from the manufacturer of the world’s most advanced semiconductor-making equipment, later worked for Huawei Technologies, according to a Dutch media report.

ASML disclosed in its 2022 annual report published in February that one of its former China-based employees had engaged in “unauthorised misappropriation of data relating to proprietary technology” that may have violated some export controls.
ASML CEO Peter Wennink characterised the incident as “one piece of a puzzle that you don’t have the box for”, and the Veldhoven, Netherlands-based company did not disclose what data was stolen. But a Bloomberg report at the time said the theft targeted a chip machine repository that included details of ASML’s advanced machinery.
On Monday, Dutch newspaper NRC reported that the perpetrator went on to work for US-sanctioned Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei after leaving ASML, citing unnamed sources.

ASML and Huawei did not immediately respond to an inquiry from the Post.

The Dutch company said in February that it had reported the breach to authorities and implemented remedial measures in response, adding that it believed the breach would not have any material impact to its business.

Since landing on the US government’s so-called Entity List in 2019, Huawei has been barred from accessing advanced chip technology that uses US components, forcing major contract chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to stop accepting new orders from the mainland giant.

TSMC is a customer of ASML, which has a near monopoly position in the production of the world’s most advanced extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines, used in producing leading-edge chips.

Since 2019, ASML has stopped exporting those machines to mainland China.


Under additional export controls imposed by the Dutch government, starting in January, ASML will also be barred from shipping some of its less advanced deep ultraviolet (DUV) immersion lithography systems to China.
Constricted access to lithography machines has become a major roadblock to China’s chip self-sufficiency goals.
Huawei in August quietly released a 5G-capable smartphone, the Mate 60 Pro, which contains an advanced 7-nanometre processor. While the achievement has been hailed domestically as proof that China can make technological breakthroughs despite US sanctions, the chip was believed to be made using DUV rather than EUV machines.

EUV machines are currently necessary for producing 7-nm chips or below in a commercially-viable way.

Amid heightened geopolitical tensions, ASML and other chip-related companies have previously accused Chinese entities of intellectual property (IP) theft and talent poaching.

In 2022, ASML said a Beijing-based firm marketed products in China that “could potentially” infringe on ASML’s IP rights.

In 2021, the economic minister of Taiwan accused Beijing of stepping up efforts to gain the island’s advanced technology and poach its talent in response to the China-US tech war. Last year, the government of Taiwan began enforcing regulations to prohibit mainland Chinese firms from hiring top talent in sensitive sectors such as chips.
More recently, US authorities launched an investigation into the Chinese gallium nitride-on-silicon semiconductor company Innoscience, after a US competitor accused it of hiring two ex-employees, including an engineer, to obtain its secrets and infringe its patent rights. Innoscience denied that the hires amounted to evidence of patent infringement.

 

[kankan326]

Regardless this news is fake or true. I think all IP should not be protected if the IP owners refuse to let a company use the IP at reasonable price. IP should not be weaponized to block others development. For example, if you build a road, you can charge a fee for vehicles running on the road. You can not prohibit some people using the road.

 

[Menthol]

Is ASML not protecting their tech with patent?


You hired a programmer to write code for an FPS game.

Once the game development is finished, you fired him.

Then this programmer is hired by another gaming company to create another FPS game.

Can you sue him for stealing your code (and he is the one who wrote it)?

 

[Han Patriot]

I hope it is not the janitor.

 

[gambit]

Is ASML not protecting their tech with patent?


You hired a programmer to write code for an FPS game.

Once the game development is finished, you fired him.

Then this programmer is hired by another gaming company to create another FPS game.

Can you sue him for stealing your code (and he is the one who wrote it)?

I already answered this question. See if you can find it.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Is ASML not protecting their tech with patent?

Can you sue him for stealing your code (and he is the one who wrote it)?

If it was a Western company he doesn't own the code he wrote so if he copied it he could be sued.
On the top line of most code files you'll see the copyright line explicitly stating who owns it...which is the company paying the employee.

This is why innovation is slow in Asia because nobody wants to invest heaps of money into something that will just end up being handed to your competitor.

 

[Bengal71]

If it was a Western company he doesn't own the code he wrote so if he copied it he could be sued.
On the top line of most code files you'll see the copyright line explicitly stating who owns it...which is the company paying the employee.

This is why innovation is slow in Asia because nobody wants to invest heaps of money into something that will just end up being handed to your competitor.

Non compete agreements are not always enforceable. California refuses to enforce it.

The general legal status of non compete agreement is that if it makes a human unemployable, and he can't make a living, it's void.

 

[buntalanlucu]

It is funny how indian posters in PDF (hiding behind US flags) are in panick and constantly spreading anti china fake news.

this only proves one thing , that china is so far ahead of US that the only way US can fight is by lies and by using indian trolls as their voice in PDF