Taiwanese prosecutors on Friday accused a Chinese Apple supplier of stealing commercial secrets from a Taiwanese supplier and poaching its workforce to win orders from the US 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 had
targeted Taiwanese competitor Catcher Technology "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. © Reuters
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