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Applied Asked FBI To Charge Workers With IP Theft, Jury Told
Law360 (August 3, 2021, 10:07 PM EDT) An FBI agent testified during a criminal trade secret theft trial Tuesday that Applied Materials Inc. asked the agency to investigate and charge four ex-workers with stealing its intellectual property, but conceded the company never disclosed emails showing Applied s executives encouraged one of the defendants to launch a spinoff company.
FBI Special Agent Ann Trombetta s testimony came during the second week of an in-person California federal jury trial against former Applied workers Liang Chen, Donald Olgado, Wei-Yung Hsu and Robert Ewald.
The trial kicked off July 27, with prosecutors telling a jury that the former workers stole LCD chip technology trade.