Subsidiary Asus loses lawsuit over USB trade secrets steal VIA

VIA Technologies has won a lawsuit the company has filed against ASMedia Technology. VIA claims the Asus subsidiary is guilty of stealing trade secrets and unfair competition.

Dozens of VIA employees have switched to ASM since 2007, Courthouse News reports. The employees are said to have brought confidential information from their previous employer with them. VIA claims that investigation has shown that the confidential documents were downloaded, printed and probably passed on to ASM by the transferred employees. That would have happened when the people were still working at VIA.

It would mainly concern information about USB technology. VIA finds the sudden change of course that ASM initiated in 2008 highly remarkable. At the time, the subsidiary would have had little or no knowledge in the field of USB chips. Since its foundation in 2004, ASMedia has even focused on making digital picture frames. Despite this, the company has been able to develop USB 3.0 chips and then put them into mass production. All of these activities are said to have happened shortly after the workers’ transition period. Today ASMedia profiles itself as the ‘No. 1 usb 3.0 device provider’.

VIA claims that the company’s intellectual property has been infringed and that there is unfair competition. ASM lost the case based on default judgment, which typically means the defendants failed to respond or were unable to appear in court. VIA had brought the case against Asus Computer, Asustek Computer and ASMedia.