On March 5th, 2014, a federal jury convicted Walter Lian-Heen Liew and Maegerle of economic espionage, theft of trade secrets and other charges for theft of a coveted recipe developed by DuPont which is used to whiten the cream inside Oreos. This recipe for titanium dioxide (TiO2), which can also be used for the manufacture of paper and plastic products as well, had been a closely guarded DuPont secret despite longstanding efforts by Chinese to acquire a similar recipe. This process, which uses chloride, is highly regarded as a cleaner and more efficient process than the standard industry practice of using sulfates in the manufacturing process. Historically, DuPont has taken great measures to keep this formula as a trade secret.
According to testimony from trial, Mr. Maegerle, an engineer who had been with DuPont for 35 years, disclosed the recipe to Mr. Liew who had set up a California company with the intention of producing TiO2 and selling it to the Chinese. Mr. Liew had entered into contracts with Chinese state-owned entities regarding projects which involved the use of this TiO2 technology for manufacturing purposes. After obtaining the trade secret, the defendants sold it for over $20 million.
This is the first federal jury conviction under the Espionage Act of 1996 which provides no private cause of action, but offers the government a powerful weapon in protecting intellectual property interests in the U.S. Sentencing for these individuals is scheduled for June 10, 2014 and it will be interesting to follow since there is no precedent.