Taiwan court hands down jail terms in TSMC trade secrets case

Ex-Tokyo Electron employee sentenced to 10 years in prison, with four other defendants receiving jail terms between 10 months and six years. A court in Taiwan fined the local unit of Japan’s Tokyo Electron $5m. The ruling follows a high-profile trade secrets case involving TSMC, where prosecutors accused Chen Li-ming and others of unlawfully obtaining TSMC’s sensitive computer chip technology under the National Security Act. Chen was sentenced to 10 years, while three other former employees received terms ranging from two to six years. A fifth defendant received a 10-month sentence suspended for three years. Tokyo Electron and TSMC did not immediately respond to comment requests.