TSMC's 2nm leak case first trial verdict: mastermind Chen Liming sentenced to 10 years, the first case after the national security law amendment

The Intellectual Property and Commercial Court issued a first-instance ruling in the case involving a leak of TSMC’s 2nm process, sentencing the mastermind, Chen Lih-ming, to 10 years in prison. The other four defendants were each sentenced to between 2 and 6 years. This case is the first verdict following the amendment of the provisions of the National Security Law concerning the theft of the nation’s core key technologies.
(Background: I caught the “TSMC gets the better mood, the worse I feel” disease… mental torment in the engineer’s mind before resigning, netizens: If you don’t step down, everyone will be gone.)
(Additional background: The Financial Supervisory Commission has rolled out the “TSMC Clause”! The single-stock holding limit for Taiwan stock funds is relaxed to 25%, with up to NT$200 billion in fresh liquidity flowing in.)

Table of Contents

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• How the mastermind organized the leak
• Sentencing details for each defendant
• Tokyo Power Company: Settlement in exchange for probation
  • Declarations by both sides
• The first verdict after the National Security Law amendment

On April 27, the Intellectual Property and Commercial Court announced its verdict in the TSMC 2nm process leak case, which may be appealed. The case involves former and current TSMC engineers, as well as Tokyo Power Creative (TEL) of Japan, a major semiconductor equipment company, and its Taiwan subsidiary, Tokyo Power. There are 5 defendants and 1 legal entity. The key issue is whether TSMC’s national core key technology was provided to competing equipment suppliers.

How the mastermind organized the leak

The logic of competition among suppliers is the driving force behind this case. Tokyo Power was eager to break into the supply chain for TSMC’s 2nm process etching equipment, and Chen Lih-ming was the intermediary for this illegal shortcut.

After leaving TSMC, starting in the second half of 2023, he continued contacting engineers who were still employed at the company—Wu Bingjun and Ge Yiping—to obtain the core parameters of the etching sites and process files, and then passed them on to Tokyo Power to help it evaluate machine design and improvement directions.

The court found that the leaking conduct continued until the first half of 2025. During that period, the defendants did not only transmit information orally; they even photographed and reproduced technical materials. The ultimate purpose was to help Tokyo Power obtain the supply qualification for 2nm mass-production machines.

On August 27 of last year, Taiwan’s High Prosecutors Office, Intellectual Property Division indicted Chen Lih-ming, Wu Bingjun, and Ge Yiping under offenses such as the overseas use of national core key technologies as trade secrets in relation to the National Security Law. In addition, because it was determined that Tokyo Power had supervisory responsibility over Chen Lih-ming, prosecutors added an indictment against Tokyo Power Company.

The prosecution also found that Tokyo Power’s hard drives still contained trade secrets from TSMC, such as “IC manufacturing technology below 14 nanometers and its key gases, chemicals, and equipment technology,” and further added charges against Chen Lih-ming, TSMC engineer Chen Weijie, and Tokyo Power employee Lu Yiyin.

Sentencing details for each defendant

According to the court’s press release, the verdict is as follows:

Chen Lih-ming: Convicted of five offenses, including the offense of intent to use trade secrets outside the territory, and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Chen Weijie (a current TSMC engineer): Convicted of the offense of intent to use national security trade secrets outside the territory, and sentenced to 6 years in prison.

Wu Bingjun (a current TSMC engineer at the time of the incident): Convicted of the offense of intent to use trade secrets outside the territory and the offense of intent to use national security trade secrets outside the territory, and sentenced to 3 years in prison.

Ge Yiping (a TSMC engineer): Convicted of the offense of intent to use national security trade secrets outside the territory, and sentenced to 2 years in prison.

Lu Yiyin (a Tokyo Power employee): Convicted of the offense of destroying criminal evidence, sentenced to 10 months in prison, with a 3-year probation. He was also ordered to pay NT$1,000,000 to the public treasury and attend 6 sessions of legal education.

Tokyo Power Company: Settlement in exchange for probation

For the legal entity, Tokyo Power Company was fined NT$150,000,000, but the court granted it a 3-year suspended sentence. According to the court’s press release, Tokyo Power admitted the crime, actively cooperated with the investigation, and, together with its parent company, Japan’s Tokyo Power Kabushiki Kaisha, and TSMC, reached a settlement. As a result, it obtained a suspended-sentence ruling.

Declarations by both sides

This judicial standoff, lasting nearly two years, saw each side place different emphasis in its public statements. TSMC emphasized that it has zero tolerance for any infringement of trade secrets. The verdict provided full judicial protection for core technologies. The company will continue to strengthen internal control and monitoring mechanisms to ensure similar incidents do not happen again.

Regarding the outcome of the trial, TEL tried to draw a line at the organizational level. It claimed that whether it is the parent company TEL or its Taiwan subsidiary Tokyo Power Creative, neither had provided any systemic involvement in this case. It also claimed that no sensitive confidential information was leaked.

The first verdict after the National Security Law amendment

This case has clear legal benchmark significance: it is the first verdict issued by the court after the legislative amendment of the National Security Law regarding theft of the nation’s core key technologies. In recent years, Taiwan has officially designated semiconductor process technologies as “national core key technologies.” Those who violate the rules will face heavier criminal penalties than those under the general Trade Secrets Act. This verdict establishes a judicial precedent for the application of the relevant provisions, and is expected to influence the direction of investigation and prosecution in similar cases going forward.