After first floating $20bn penalty, DoJ suggests $60m fine for UMC's theft of Micron’s DRAM secrets

Taiwanese chip-maker United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) will plead guilty to theft of trade secrets from Micron Technologies and pay a $60m fine to the USA. The case was brought in 2018 when the US Department of Justice (DoJ) alleged that UMC and Chinese outfit Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit conspired to steal Micron’ …

[Anonymous Coward]

Huawei's going on

It should be pointed out that the first IP theft case that led to the Huawei ban was for their attempt to steal T-Mobile's Tappy (you can't make this up) robot arm which (wait for it) tapped the screen to test its durability.

Obviously UMC's theft of Micron's technology was much less important or they would have been banned as well.

No politics to see here. Move along.

[Chris G]

Re: Huawei's going on

Probably, you can expect in the not too far distant future, that UMC will be winning contracts in the US in lieu of mainland Chinese businesses.

The DOJ initiated the case and they were found guilty so some kind of penalty had to be levied but due to the developing distance between the US ad PRC, reasonably amicable relationships need to be maintained with alternatives.

[You aint sin me, roit]

Interesting definition of "midpoint"

Severe = 20 billion fine

Midpoint = 60 million fine

Lenient = 19.88 billion "gift"?

[six_tymes]

$60m, that's all? wtf?!

[Mark Exclamation]

It's all moot, really. When China sails/flies/marches into Taiwan, they will take possession of all resident international IP and the US' military hardware.

[JCitizen]

What's good...

for the mainland is good for the island?