The competition between Taiwan's major semiconductor manufacturer TSMC and South Korean manufacturer Samsung Electronics has been very popular in recent years because Samsung has also entered the wafer foundry field and wants to grab TSMC's orders. Therefore, in the talent poaching battle, Samsung, the Korean factory, also chose to actively contact and strive for key talents of TSMC. He offered high salaries to poach Liang Mengsong, who was the senior director of the R&D department at the time. After leaving TSMC, he first worked at the university and later transferred to the deputy general manager of Samsung's large integrated circuit research and development of semiconductor systems, and now lives in South Korea.
TSMC revealed on May 14 that the lawsuit against Liang Mengsong for infringement was previously issued by Taiwan’s Smart Property Court’s second-instance judgment, which was TSMC’s victory. Not only that, the Smart Property Court also agreed to three requests made by TSMC, including bans against Liang Mengsong, including not leaking TSMC's business secrets and not providing services to Korean factory Samsung before the end of 2015.
has formed a jurisprudence, and the winning rate of the other party's re-appeal is not high
TSMC has stated that even if Liang Mengsong is not convinced of this judgment, the case can continue to appeal, but because this verdict has been won, in other words, this has formed a case, and the winning rate of the other party's re-appeal is not high. TSMC also believes that the judgment will bring legal restrictions on Liang Mengsong himself and will not provide any services to Samsung in any form, and will try to block the possibility of Liang Mengsong providing services to Samsung
TSMC hopes that this case can be effective immediately, telling Samsung that it can no longer maliciously poach employees of TSMC system in improper ways, and also hope that other countries and companies will reduce the vicious poaching of Taiwanese manufacturers.
Review the results and claims of the first instance judgment
In 2013, a lawsuit for the leak of business secrets between TSMC and Liang Mengsong. At that time, the Intelligent Property Court ruled that TSMC won the first instance and made confidential information or business secrets against Liang Mengsong that he may not use or leaked what he knew, contacted or obtained during his tenure at TSMC and was related to TSMC products, processes, customers or suppliers. In addition, the plaintiff's business secrets must not be obtained from third parties such as TSMC's employees, suppliers or customers by improper methods, and the relevant information of R&D department personnel shall not be used or leaked to South Korea's Samsung Electronics. These bans are quite strict.
However, TSMC had a claim that was not recognized by the court in the first instance and was rejected, that is, "Before December 31, 2015, Liang Mengsong was prohibited from providing services to Samsung by office or other means". Now, the second instance continues to sentence TSMC to win the case. The aforementioned ban that had not been approved before is now "approved by the court."
The balance between career planning and avoiding infringement
For career planning in the workplace, TSMC still reiterates that the company absolutely respects the individual's right to pursue its goals and achievements, but will never allow anything that will cause harm to TSMC's smart property rights. This is also worthy of deep consideration by many manufacturers and employees in the industry. How to retain key talents and how to deal with the company's intelligent property rights and business secrets? These are all legal and moral issues worth discussing.
