The world’s top producers of computer memory chips are embroiled in an apparent case of industrial espionage after South Korean prosecutors indicted 18 people over alleged technology theft.
Prosecutors said Thursday those involved are suspected of leaking semiconductor technology belonging to Samsung Electronics to its domestic rival Hynix Semiconductor.
The case highlights the intense competition among chipmakers and other sellers of high tech products, who frequently sue each other over alleged patent infringements.
Samsung Electronics Co. and Hynix Semiconductor Inc. are the world’s top two producers of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips, used mostly in personal computers. Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung is also the world’s biggest manufacturer of NAND flash chips, used in digital devices such as cameras, music players and smartphones. Hynix ranks No. 3 in NAND, behind Samsung and Japan’s Toshiba Corp.
Eighteen people were indicted on Wednesday, though 14 were not physically detained ahead of a trial, said Kim Yeong-cheol, a prosecutor handling the case. He said prosecutors were also seeking a former Samsung employee for questioning.
The technology is believed to have been obtained by employees of the South Korean arm of Applied Materials Inc., a U.S. company that makes equipment for chip manufacturers including Samsung, and then passed on to Hynix, according to prosecutors.
The local operation of Applied Materials had access to Samsung’s “core technology” through installing and maintaining the company’s chip manufacturing equipment, prosecutors said in a statement Wednesday.
Indicted and being held were one employee each from Samsung and Hynix, the former head of the South Korean arm of Applied Materials — who currently serves as a vice president of the U.S. company — and one of the South Korean unit’s current employees, prosecutors said.
Kim, the prosecutor, said Thursday that no decision has been made whether to seek extradition of a former Samsung employee who is working…