US convicts ex-Philips engineer for exposing X-ray secrets to competitor

A once-Philips engineer, Chih-Yee Jen, has been convicted of stealing the company's medical imaging trade secrets and sharing them with a Chinese rival. Jen, then 71, had worked at Philips' Aurora, Illinois, facility, where he contributed to the research, development, and manufacturing of X-ray tubes for the company's CT medical imaging machines.

In June 2017, Philips announced it would cease operations at the Aurora facility by the year's end, leading to job losses and a relocation of responsibilities to Germany. Jen's interactions with Xiaoqin Du, a vice president at Kunshan GuoLi Electronic Technology, started in August 2017. Du was seeking Jen's help in obtaining Philips' trade secrets and utilizing them to create X-ray tubes for a Kunshan GuoLi subsidiary located in Aurora, Illinois.

The nine trade secrets at the heart of the case included seasoning protocols, component specifications, manufacturing and assembly processes, tolerance measurements, annealing specifications, and code. Jen was accused of obtaining four of these secrets by accessing company databases and other sources. After leaving Philips in December 2017, Jen joined the Chinese Aurora subsidiary in January 2018, where he continued to develop X-ray tubes using the stolen trade secrets.

The subsidiary was later sold to Kunshan Yiyuan in May 2018, which exported the X-ray tubes in China. Philips had compelled all its employees to sign an Ethics and Intellectual Property Agreement, which prohibited them from disclosing any confidential or proprietary information during or after their employment. Furthermore, the staff who left Philips after the Aurora facility closure signed a Settlement and General Release Agreement, preventing them from using the company's technical information for rival benefit.

Philips filed a civil lawsuit against Jen in April 2019, alleging that he retained and concealed the trade secret information until July 2022. US Attorney Andrew S. Boutros emphasized the gravity of the offense, stating that stealing proprietary information harms American jobs and hampers the research and development crucial for the nation's future.

The case also included allegations that Jen recruited other Philips engineers, Fince Tendian and Vladimir Nevtonenko, to steal trade secrets on Du's behalf. Tendian and Nevtonenko had been working on Philips' X-ray tubes since 1998, even before the Aurora facility opened in 2001. Tendian and Nevtonenko have both pleaded guilty to their charges, while Jen was found guilty after a week-long trial. Jen's sentencing is set for January 5, 2027, with Tendian's expected on December 8, 2026.