(Yicai) Aug. 14 -- Beijing E-Town Semiconductor Technology, a leading Chinese semiconductor equipment manufacturer, has filed a lawsuit against its US competitor Applied Materials for allegedly infringing its trade secrets.

Two employees at E-Town’s subsidiary Mattson Technology stole core production technology secrets from the company, resigned, and then joined Applied Materials, where they developed products with the stolen technology and promoted them to Chinese customers, the Beijing-based company announced yesterday.

The stolen technology is owned by Mattson Technology, a US designer and maker of semiconductor wafer processing equipment that E-Town acquired in 2016, the firm noted, adding that Applied Materials tried to file an invention patent application with the China National Intellectual Property Administration, attempting to appropriate the technology.

E-Town is asking the Beijing court, to which it filed the lawsuit, to order Advanced Materials to cease all infringing activities, and pay a compensation of three times the amount of its losses plus reasonable expenses incurred to stop the infringement for a total of CNY100 million (USD13.9 million). The court has accepted the case, but no trial date has been set yet.

E-Town researches, designs, produces, and sells core integrated circuit manufacturing equipment. Its products have entered the supply chains of the world’s top 10 chipmakers and leading Chinese firms. Last year, E-Town’s sales revenue from the Chinese market accounted for 67 percent of the total.

E-Town [SHA: 688729] closed 1.8 percent down at CNY22.46 (USD3.13) in Shanghai today, after gaining as much as 2.1 percent in morning trading.

Editor: Futura Costaglione