Tokyo Electron ordered to pay 760 million yen; former employee sentenced to 10 years in prison in Taiwan over TSMC trade secret leak

Taiwan’s Intellectual Property and Commercial Court fined Tokyo Electron’s Taiwan subsidiary NT$150 million in the TSMC trade-secret case.

A former employee accused of the main offense was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The court found the subsidiary had a supervisory duty, but said no evidence showed the secrets were passed to a third party.

The ruling is the first application of Taiwan’s new economic espionage offense, with implications for semiconductor secrecy controls and Japan-Taiwan business ties.