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China knows a secret (or two)
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Silicon Valley has become ground zero for the theft of trade secret cases. Has anyone noticed that the trail always seems to lead to China?
Last week’s news that the prosecution of two engineers for theft of trade secrets from the Mountain View-based NetLogic Microsystems had ended in a mistrial shows how tough it can be to make these charges stick. But not to be overlooked is the fact that this is only one of many recent cases where the recipient of trade secrets was in China.
In the NetLogic case, the engineers in question allegedly stole design plans for a superfast computer chip in order to start a new firm with the suspected financial backing of the Chinese government. Their case was only the second time that engineers have been charged under the Economic Espionage act. The first time, a Boeing engineer was convicted of passing highly sensitive information about the U.S. space program to – you guessed it – China.
Then there is the case of Sheldon Meng, a former engineer at Quantum3D in the Bay Area who was arrested several years ago by the FBI. His crime was theft of the simulation program for night vision technology. This information is highly valuable as the U.S. “owns the night” and guards its night vision capability very carefully against theft from other countries. Quantum3D’s CEO did not become aware of the theft until he got a call one day from a colleague who said he had seen the simulation program running in a company’s booth at a trade show in…hold for the suspense here…China.
Meng is still imprisoned in Lompoc, CA and has not only refused to speak to the media about his case, he’s forbidden his lawyers to talk publicly as well. So we are all left to ponder a scenario where high tech engineers seeking to offer highly prized trade secrets are talking with their counterparts across the Pacific Ocean…and getting an interested ear.
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