A first-round verdict has been issued in the TSMC 2nm trade secret leak case. Taiwan’s Intellectual Property and Commercial Court sentenced alleged ringleader Chen Li-ming to 10 years in prison, while the other four individual defendants received prison terms ranging from 2 to 6 years. Tokyo Electron’s Taiwan unit, charged as a corporate defendant, was fined NT$150 million and given a three-year suspended sentence. The case can still be appealed. It is also the first court ruling issued after amendments to Taiwan’s National Security Act covering theft of national core critical technologies.
Court says leaks ran from late 2023 into the first half of 2025
The case involved former and current TSMC engineers, along with Tokyo Electron Taiwan, a subsidiary of Japanese semiconductor equipment maker TEL. In total, prosecutors charged five individuals and one corporate entity. According to the court, after leaving TSMC, Chen began contacting current engineers Wu Bing-jun and Ge Yi-ping in the second half of 2023, seeking core etching station parameters and process files. Those materials were then passed to Tokyo Electron to help assess machine design and possible improvements.
The court found that the conduct continued into the first half of 2025. It was not limited to verbal exchanges. The defendants were also found to have photographed and reproduced technical materials, with the goal of helping Tokyo Electron obtain supplier qualification for TSMC’s 2nm mass-production equipment. Prosecutors later said they also found TSMC trade secrets stored on a Tokyo Electron hard drive, including IC manufacturing technologies for processes below 14nm and related gas, chemical, and equipment technologies, leading to additional charges.
Sentences for five defendants include prison terms and a suspended term
Based on the court’s statement, Chen was convicted on five counts, including unauthorized use of trade secrets outside the territory, and received a 10-year sentence. TSMC engineer Chen Wei-jie was sentenced to 6 years for intended extraterritorial use of national security-related trade secrets. Wu Bing-jun, who was employed by TSMC at the time of the conduct, was sentenced to 3 years for offenses involving both general trade secrets and national security trade secrets. Ge Yi-ping received 2 years for intended extraterritorial use of national security trade secrets.
Lu Yi-yin, an employee of Tokyo Electron, was convicted of destroying criminal evidence and sentenced to 10 months in prison, suspended for three years. The court also ordered Lu to pay NT$1 million to the public treasury and attend six legal education sessions.
Tokyo Electron Taiwan fined NT$150 million after settlement and cooperation
On the corporate side, Tokyo Electron Taiwan was fined NT$150 million, with the sentence suspended for three years. The court said the company admitted wrongdoing, cooperated with the investigation, and, together with its Japanese parent company, reached a settlement with TSMC. That was cited as the basis for the suspended sentence.
After the ruling, TSMC said it maintains zero tolerance for trade secret violations and described the judgment as meaningful judicial protection for its core technologies. The company also said it would continue strengthening internal controls and monitoring. TEL, for its part, said neither the parent company nor its Taiwan subsidiary had organizationally directed the conduct in this case, and claimed the confidential information had not been leaked externally.
First ruling under revised national security rules for core semiconductor technology
The case carries weight beyond the individual sentences. Taiwan has classified semiconductor process technology as a “national core critical technology,” exposing violators to penalties heavier than those under standard trade secret law. This first-round ruling is the first judicial application of those amended provisions, setting an early court precedent for how such cases may be handled going forward.