Taiwan accuses Chinese Apple supplier of stealing secrets, charges 14

Catcher Technology Co

15/07/2022 13:31

TAIPEI, July 15 (Reuters) - Taiwanese prosecutors on Friday
accused a Chinese Apple Inc  AAPL.O  supplier of stealing
commercial secrets from a Taiwanese supplier and poaching its
workforce to win orders from the U.S. company, saying it had
charged 14 people.
    Taiwan has been stepping up efforts to stop what it views as
underhand and illegal activities by Chinese firms to steal
know-how and poach away talent in what Taipei's government views
as a threat to the island's tech prowess.
    Prosecutors in New Taipei said after a year-and-a-half
investigation they had found that China's Luxshare Precision
Industry Co Ltd  002475.SZ  had targeted Taiwanese competitor
Catcher Technology Co Ltd  2474.TW  "in order to quickly enter
the Apple production chain to win orders".
    Luxshare "lured" Catcher's China based research and
development team with promises of high salaries and stole
business secrets from the Taiwanese firm, causing them big
losses, the prosecutors said in a statement.
    Luxshare was doing this in order to be able to "quickly
build factories and mass produce cases for iPhones, iPads and
other products", the statement said.
    Luxshare did not immediately respond to a request for
comment, and neither did Apple. 
    New Taipei prosecutors have now charged 14 people in
connection with the case for breach of trust and taking
commercial secrets for use overseas, they added.
    "The department will do its best to investigate such cases
to maintain the sound development of our country's enterprises
and ensure the competitiveness of national industries." 
    Catcher, which makes iPhone and iPad cases, said in a
statement it continues to implement and optimise the protection
of trade secrets and intellectual property rights, and will
investigate anything that infringes on its rights and interests.
    The company is cooperating with the probe, it added.
    In May, Taiwanese authorities raided 10 companies or their
R&D centres operating in Taiwan without approval suspected of
illegally poaching chip engineers and other tech
talent. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2XI1SE

 (Reporting by Ben Blanchard
Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
 ((ben.blanchard@thomsonreuters.com;))