ASML suffered intellectual property theft but denounces national conspiracy
Six former ASML employees, all with Chinese names, breached their employment contracts by sharing information on ASML software processes with XTAL Inc
Amsterdam — Dutch ASML said on Thursday it had been the victim of corporate espionage in 2015 involving employees from countries including China but said it had not been the target of any national conspiracy. ASML said the perpetrators took large files on memory sticks from its Silicon Valley software subsidiary that develops software for machine optimisation. It said it had since taken action to make such theft much more difficult. Following the publication of a story in Dutch daily newspaper Financieele Dagblad (FD) that said ASML had been struck by Chinese espionage, the company took issue with that label. “The suggestion that we were somehow victim of a national conspiracy is wrong,” CEO Peter Wennink said. “We resent any suggestion that this event should have any implication for ASML conducting business in China. Some of the individuals [involved] happened to be Chinese nationals,” he added. The Dutch company welcomed a Sino-European agreement earlier this week, which promised...
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