Dutch Chip-Equipment Maker ASML Was Victim of Corporate Espionage

   By Max Bernhard

ASML Holding NV (ASML.AE) said Thursday that one of its U.S. subsidiaries was the victim of corporate espionage several years ago, but no blue prints for its lithography machines were stolen.

The Dutch semiconductor-equipment maker said it discovered the theft itself and "immediately took legal action." The company was responding to a report by Dutch daily Financieele Dagblad which said high-level Chinese employees at the U.S. unit stole technology, which then ended up with a company linked to the Chinese government.

"This concerns a small part of our company in Silicon Valley where software programs for machine optimization are developed. There is no question of theft of blueprints, which would enable third parties to build a lithography machine," ASML said.

An ASML spokeswoman said that it couldn't confirm that everyone involved in the theft was Chinese and that the company never found evidence that there was a link to the Chinese government.

She said more information can be found in a U.S. court case between an ASML subsidiary and Chinese company XTAL, in which ASML was awarded $223 million in damages last year.

In it's statement, ASML called the theft an isolated incident. "Can we do business in China? Of course we can. This was one 'bad apple'," it said.

Write to Max Bernhard at max.bernhard@dowjones.com