Taiwan’s UMC Pays to Settle Tech Theft Litigation With Micron

Debby Wu, Bloomberg News

A 300 millimetre silicon wafer during the manufacturing process inside the new Infineon Technologies AG chip factory in Villach, Austria, on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021. Infineon Chief Executive Officer Reinhard Ploss said the fully automated factory is expected to generate revenue of €2 billion per year. Photographer: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- United Microelectronics Corp. and Micron Technology Inc. have settled a civil lawsuit in which the U.S. memory chipmaker accused the Taiwanese company of stealing and leaking its intellectual property to a Chinese partner.

UMC will make a one-time payment of an undisclosed amount to settle all competing claims between the companies globally, according to a joint statement. The move ends a high-profile chapter in U.S.-China tensions, with the international case serving as a focal point for Washington complaints of Beijing facilitating forced technology transfers from America to China, a charge the Asian country denies.

The case concerned an allegedly illegal transfer of Micron’s memory designs in a chip manufacturing deal between UMC and Jinjiang-based Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co. In 2020, UMC pleaded guilty in San Francisco federal court in a deal with U.S. prosecutors, who agreed to drop charges of economic espionage and conspiracy. UMC instead admitted to trade-secret theft and agreed to pay a $60 million fine.

Following the move, Micron said it will continue to seek “full restitution” from UMC in a separate civil lawsuit.

Read more about Taiwan’s UMC and its efforts to aid U.S. pursuit of alleged Chinese intellectual theft