ASML says damage from corporate theft in U.S. was limited

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch semiconductor equipment manufacturing company ASML Holding NV on Thursday confirmed it had been the victim of corporate espionage but downplayed the impact on its business.

Following a report in Dutch paper Financieele Dagblad that Chinese employees had stolen intellectual property, ASML confirmed it had been a victim of theft.

However it said the material stolen was "not a blueprint" that would allow competitors to copy its core product, the lithography systems used in semiconductor manufacturing.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Jan Harvey)