Taiwan Accuses Chinese Apple Supplier Luxshare of Stealing Secrets and Charges 14 People

Taiwan prosecutors on Friday accused a Chinese supplier of Apple of stealing trade secrets from a Taiwanese supplier and poaching its workforce to get orders from the US company, saying it has filed charges against 14 people.

Taiwan is ramping up efforts to stop what it sees as covert and illegal activities by Chinese firms to steal know-how and poach talent, which the Taipei government sees as a threat to the island’s technical prowess.

New Taipei prosecutors said after a year-and-a-half investigation, they found that Chinese company Luxshare Precision Industry targeted Taiwanese competitor Catcher Technology “to quickly enter Apple’s production chain and win orders.”

Luxshare lured China’s Catcher R&D team with promises of high salaries and stole the Taiwanese firm’s business secrets, causing them heavy losses, prosecutors said in a statement.

Luxshare did this to be able to “quickly build factories and mass-produce cases for iPhone, iPad and other products,” the statement said.

Luxshare did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and neither did Apple.

They added that the New Taipei prosecutor’s office has now indicted 14 individuals in a case of breach of trust and exploitation of trade secrets for use abroad.

“The agency will do its best to investigate such cases in order to support the healthy development of our country’s enterprises and ensure the competitiveness of the national industry.”

iPhone and iPad case maker Catcher said in a statement that it continues to implement and improve trade secret and intellectual property protection and will investigate anything that violates its rights and interests.

The company is cooperating with the investigation, he added.

In May, Taiwanese authorities raided 10 companies or their R&D centers operating in Taiwan without approval, suspected of illegally poaching chip engineers and other technical talents.

© Thomson Reuters 2022