Hong Meng, a top level DuPont research scientist working from the Wilmington, Delaware location, has been accused of stealing trade secrets. Meng, a Chinese citizen with permanent U.S. residence status, was working on development of Organic Light Emitting Diode technology, or OLED, which would allow for ultrathin computer displays.
Without informing DuPont, Meng accepted a position at Peking University, his alma mater, while continuing to work for DuPont. The position would be directly involved in research and development of OLED technology for China.
While scheduled to transfer to a DuPont facility in China, Meng proceeded to download proprietary information relating to OLED trade secrets onto an external hard drive. He also was found to have an illicit connection to Peking on his computer. This was discovered by DuPont during a routine hard drive examination performed prior to any employee transfer.
After denying any wrongdoing, Meng admitted to possessing the information in question when presented with the evidence from his hard drive. A subsequent search of his home computer found that he had been in communication with Peking University, and started a program at the school to commercialize OLED technology for industrial applications in “direct competition with DuPont” according to the lawsuit.
DuPont asked the court to issue a permanent injunction requiring Meng and those he worked with to return all misappropriated material, as well as prohibiting Meng from working with Peking University or with any other entity developing technologies that he worked on while at DuPont. At present, investigation of Meng is continuing.
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