Chinese Company Fined for Copying ASM’s Wire Bonder

On 15 February, the Haicang District People's Court in Xiamen of Fujian Province made the first judgment on the copyright infringement case in which Xiamen Wei Er Fu Automatic Equipment Co. Ltd. and its general manager Li illegally copied a type of wire bonder manufactured by ASM Pacific Technology Ltd.

In early 2004, without any authorization from ASM, Li copied the operation software (copyright No. 2000SR1812) owned by ASM. After making several modifications, Wei Er Fu applied the software to its two types of wire bonders and sold or leased the products to an industrial company in Nanjing. When the case was unearthed, the company had copied and distributed a total of 80 copies of the operation software, involving an illegal amount of RMB 3,336,000.

On 3 April 2006, the police arrested Li at Wei Er Fu and seized five wire bonders. Then Wei Er Fu and Li were accused of committing the crime of copyright infringement.

The court convicted the two defendants of the crime of copyright infringement. The court fined the company of RMB 1.7 million, sentence Li to a three-year imprisonment with a four-year suspension, and fined Li of RMB 100,000. The court also retrieved and destroyed the infringing software in 80 pieces of wire bonders that had been sold or leased.