Applied Materials sues Chinese-owned, California-based rival Mattson over an alleged 14-month effort to steal IP, including staff-poaching and design transfers
Applied Materials Inc. is suing a Chinese-owned rival over what it says was a 14-month effort to steal some of its most valuable secrets … Tweets: @byron_wan Tweets: Byron Wan / @byron_wan : Applied Materials is suing Fremont-based Mattson, acquired by Beijing-backed Beijing E-Town Dragon Semiconductor Industry Investment Center in 2016, for an orchestrated employee-poaching spree and surreptitious transfers of equipment designs over 14 mths. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Applied Materials' lawsuit against Mattson extends an already litigious arc in chipmaking equipment: Micron accused UMC and its Chinese backer of a chip-design heist in 2018, and ASML flagged a Chinese affiliate marketing infringing products in 2022. What makes this case distinctive is ownership — Fremont-based Mattson has been controlled by Beijing-backed Beijing E-Town Dragon Semiconductor Industry Investment Center since 2016.
The suit also foreshadows the counterattack: in 2025, Chinese supplier E-Town sued Applied Materials in the Beijing IP Court, alleging trade secret theft after Applied hired two of its staff — evidence that these disputes now run in both directions across the Pacific.
First-order effects
- Applied Materials gains legal recourse against staff-poaching it says stripped key equipment designs over 14 months, while Mattson faces US court proceedings despite being Beijing-owned since its 2016 acquisition.
Second-order effects
- Other Western equipment makers under similar pressure — ASML included — are pushed toward tighter employee-mobility controls and faster litigation against Chinese-owned subsidiaries operating on their home turf.
Third-order effects
- If the E-Town countersuit pattern holds, chip-equipment IP fights become reciprocal cross-border litigation, with each side using courts in its own jurisdiction as leverage — entrenching the split between American and Chinese toolchains.
The trend: Semiconductor equipment IP disputes are shifting from one-way theft allegations to symmetric cross-border litigation as US-China technology rivalry hardens.