Taiwan Semi starts legal actions against potential trade secret violators – report

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM) began legal proceedings and took disciplinary action against staff involved in potential trade secret leaks after detecting unauthorized activities during routine monitoring, Reuters reported.

The global foundry told the news agency that its “comprehensive and robust monitoring mechanisms” enabled early identification of the issue, leading to swift internal probes and strict measures against the personnel involved, the report added.

TSM did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.

The case is now under judicial review and does not allow the company to share more details, the report noted.

Earlier, Nikkei Asia reported that the violation was related to several former employees suspected of attempting to get vital proprietary information on TSM’s 2-nanometer chip technology, according to the report.

It was not clear what the former staff planned to do with the information or if it was leaked to external parties, with investigations ongoing to decide the scope of the leak, and if additional parties were involved in the matter, as per the Nikkei report.

The Taiwanese company’s 2-nanometer chip technology is the most advanced in the semiconductor industry.

TSM, whose customers include Nvidia (NVDA), Apple (AAPL) and Qualcomm (QCOM), highlighted its zero-tolerance policy for trade secret breaches and said it would pursue offenders to the full extent of the law, the report added.