Former project manager of local leading lithium battery maker indicted for illegally reproducing trade secret files

　HCM Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “HCM”), a cathode material maker, is the world’s first mass producer of LMFP cathode materials.  This company’s former project manager, surnamed Zou (hereinafter “Zou”), illegally reproducing the files containing its trade secrets with personal USB drives, resulting in the leakage of proprietary product information valued at TWD1.944 billion.  

　Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office issued a press release announcing that the prosecutorial investigation on this case has been concluded recently and Zou was indicted for committing the offense of unauthorized reproduction as defined by subparagraph 2 and 3, paragraph 1 of Article 13-1 of the Trade Secrets Act and the offense of obtaining electromagnetic records without legitimate reason as defined by Article 359 of the Criminal Code.  The prosecutor urged the court to impose heavy sentence on Zou in consideration of the damage caused by Zou and for protecting high-tech industry’s sound development and ensuring the country’s industrial competitiveness.  

　The defendant, Zou, had served as a project manager at the biotechnology division of the materials business unit at HCM and was involved in HCM’s internal R&D projects.  During the period from December 8, 2023 through December 26, 2023 before leaving HCM, Zou, however, took the advantage of his access to the confidential information regarding the manufacturing technology, formulas, and equipment development of the LMFP battery cathode materials to unlawfully copy, without authorization, a total of 5,861 files containing trade secrets with respect to HCM’s product formulas, manufacturing processes, designs, and equipment development, onto his personal USB drives and external hard drives, and took them out of HCM.  This resulted in a leakage of the trade secrets of HCM’s latest product, valued TWD1.944 billion and caused HCM to suffer tremendous loss accordingly.  On April 29, 2024, the court investigators, under the direction of the prosecutor in charge of this case, conducted a raid action on Zou’s residence and successfully seized the relevant USB drives and external hard drives.  After questioning Zou, the prosecutor requested and obtained court approval for detaining Zou, thus preventing HCM’s loss from increasing.  (Released 2024.07.16)  
/CCS