Taiwan's Intellectual Property Court has ordered optical lens module maker Ability Opto-Electronics Technology (AOET) pay NT$1.522 billion (US$50.5 million) in damages to fellow maker Largan Precision for stealing the latter's business secrets.
Largan in 2013 alleged that five of its former engineers who had joined AOET in 2011 had stolen its business secrets concerning automated manufacturing processes. Largan then filed both criminal and civil lawsuits against AOET.
The IP court handles civil proceedings. The criminal lawsuit is being handled by the Taichung District Court.
AOET has expressed disagreement with the IP court's ruling, saying it may file an appeal.
Considering the impact of the ruling, AOET has decided to cancel a plan of issuing 10 million new shares.
