Intellectual Property Law

John Coté, Chronicle Staff Writer 

A former Chinese citizen living in Cupertino was sentenced Wednesday to two years in federal prison for stealing military software from a Silicon Valley defense contractor and trying to sell it to the Chinese military, prosecutors said.

Xiaodong Sheldon Meng, 44, now a Canadian citizen, is the first person to be sentenced under a 1996 economic espionage law designed to prevent trade secrets from being handed over to foreign powers.

The prison term was the maximum that prosecutors said they would seek after Meng pleaded guilty in August in U.S. District Court in San Jose to one count of violating the Economic Espionage Act and one count of violating the Arms Export Control Act. Thirty-four other counts he had faced were dropped.