Taipei: The Intellectual Property and Commercial Court (IPCC) has ordered one former employee and two current employees of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to be detained and held incommunicado for allegedly stealing sensitive trade secrets involving the company’s advanced 2 nanometer process. The ruling was handed down after the three suspects — Chen Li-ming, an ex-TSMC engineer, Wu Ping-chun, and Ko Yi-ping, who currently worked as engineers for the chipmaker — were referred to the IPCC on Monday morning.

According to Focus Taiwan, a three-judge panel at the IPCC ruled that the three deleted their communications records after their conduct involving the alleged theft of TSMC’s advanced 2nm process was discovered, prompting reasonable fears they could continue to destroy evidence and collude with one another in making false statements. The judges indicated that the suspects’ actions potentially harmed national security and affected market competition, necessitating their detention to ensure future court proceedings are not compromised.

On August 27, the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office Intellectual Property Branch indicted the three suspects for their roles in the alleged theft of trade secrets, as well as violating the National Security Act by obtaining national core technology secrets for use abroad. Prosecutors are seeking prison terms of 14 years, nine years, and seven years, respectively for Chen, Wu, and Ko.

Chen, a former TSMC engineer now working at Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL), a Japan-based supplier to TSMC, allegedly solicited Wu and Ko during the second half of 2024 and the first half of 2025 to provide trade secrets they had access to, under the pretense of aiding TEL in securing more TSMC supply contracts, according to prosecutors. TSMC detected the irregularity and filed a lawsuit against the three in early July. Prosecutors conducted searches and raids related to the case from July 25-28, securing approval from the IPCC to detain the men during the investigation.

The case was officially referred to the IPCC on Monday, with a subsequent hearing required to determine whether the three suspects could continue to be detained. TEL stated in late August that an internal investigation has so far found no evidence that confidential information about TSMC’s 2nm process was leaked to a third party.

TSMC is advancing the development of the 2nm process, slated to begin mass production in the latter half of this year, while the 3nm process currently represents the latest technology for TSMC’s commercial production.