Local monitoring and control company Jingjin has claimed three former employees allegedly stole technological knowledge gained from a year of research and 10 billion yuan($1.6 billion) worth of investments.

Police recently brought into custody Qi Dong, Zhu Jiangli and Xue Jian on suspicion that they stole information needed to construct a new high-tech measurement system for nuclear fuel.

The company began to develop an updated version of its popular patented system in early 2010 and made breakthroughs in March that year.

In 2011, Qi applied for a patent with content, designs and illustrations exactly matching Jingjin's trade secretes, according to the company.

And according to an agreement signed by the three suspects in May 2011, they are the joint owners of the patent in issue.

Xue quit his job and founded his own firm in September 2011. Li joined the new firm in February, and Qi now also worked with them.

Revealing the secret as a patent caused a loss of more than 2 million yuan to Jingjin, according to the company.

(Source: China Daily)