Tag Archives: ultra-fine nanopowders

Nanotechnology theft in Taiwan

Charges are being laid against five men in Taiwan for theft of intellectual property from a nanotechnology firm according to a July 28, 2016 news item on the http://www.vidalatinasd.com website,

Five former employees of a Taiwanese nanotechnology firm have been charged with violating trade secrets laws by stealing technology and taking it to China, the National Police Agency said Thursday [July 28, 2016].

The accused are three former employees of Hsin Fang Nano Technology, including a production section chief surnamed Yu and a plant manager surnamed Chen, along with two other business associates.

A July 28, 2016 news article by Jason Pan for Taipei Times offers more detail,

“The estimated financial loss to our company is about NT$2.6 billion [US$81.08 million]. We urge the government to crack down on intellectual property theft against Taiwanese businesses,” chairman Chang Jen-hung (張仁鴻) said.

Hsin Fang is a grinding mill machine manufacturer, which are used to produce ultra-fine nanopowders for use in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, consumer electronics, health food, anti-radiation coating, military weapons and in other industrial applications.

Company officials said their nanopowder grinding mill, which incorporates an innovative “dry cryo-nanonization grinding system,” received a top award at a nanotechnology exhibition in Tokyo in 2012, and honors at other industry fairs in Taiwan and other countries.

The investigation in 2014 followed reports that Chen, Yu and other former employees, backed by business associates, started a new company in Yunlin County — Unicat Nano Advanced Materials & Devices Technology Co (環美凱特).

Unicat Nano later moved to Chongqing, China, setting up nanotechnology businesses that, according to investigators, were based on intellectual property stolen from Hsin Fang by Chen, Yu and other former employees.

This is the first alleged intellectual property crime regarding nanotechnology that I’ve covered here. The crimes I’ve usually covered are bombings (Mexico) or attempted bombings (Switzerland) as someone violently protests the technology.