Taiwanese tech upstarts stole our RAM secrets and staff, claims Micron

Micron is alleging United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) of Taiwan blatantly stole its intellectual property and gave it to a Chinese DRAM foundry startup, Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Company. Following this alleged theft, Chinese regulators opened an DRAM price-fixing inquiry against memory-makers Micron, Samsung, …

[Claverhouse]

The Floating World

On the pretext that he would be joining his family’s business, Wang submitted a resignation letter to MMT on April 5, 2016 and asked to have April 26, 2016 be his last day. As described below, during the weeks leading up to his last day, Wang worked diligently to steal a massive amount of Micron trade secrets for use at UMC.

I know very little of business, but these days, at least in the West, I rather thought that as soon as they saw the resignation letter in such industries, it would be accepted, a severance package agreed, and the employee issued a free plastic bag to gather up all his crap into, before being escorted out by burly security without the trouble of his soles touching the ground he was leaving forever.

[Voland's right hand]

Re: The Floating World

and the employee issued a free plastic bag to gather up all his crap into

If the employee wants to lift some confidential info this achieves nothing as he has already lifted it prior to filling the resignation letter.

[BebopWeBop]

Re: The Floating World

Which means thet if the complain is as written, our lad was very foolish working traceably to copy information without protecting his ID. Now conspiracy theorists might feel that this would be a very handy way to hobble a new competitor although methinks risky.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: The Floating World

As a lifelong semiconductor professional, I can tell you this story doesn't even scratch the surface of Chinese semiconductor IP theft.

Also, China desperately wants a semiconductor company but it's not what you think. Working as a semiconductor marketing manager, I spoke to engineering teams from all sorts of companies. As a result, I knew what were the next generation products coming from Apple, Ford, BMW, HP, Cisco, etc.

[Pascal Monett]

"A presentation at the event used Micron DRAM technology code names"

I think you'd have to be pretty stupid to steal tech when moving to a competitor and not bother to rename everything along the way to muddy the waters. Don't talk about F32, talk about Skeletor. Don't mention F32S, mention Chakram.

Be inventive, for Pete's sake. Word processors have had Find/Replace for more than 3 decades now.

[Jay Lenovo]

In next week's news...

Fujian Province Court finds Micron guilty of infringing on Micron technology.

Court gives praise to former Micron workers for their brave flight from the corrupt western firm.

International community disagrees and considers an increased policy of shrugged shoulders.