Three employees of Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn Electronics were charged in March with leaking the iPad 2's case design to third-party accessory suppliers, according to a DigiTimes report.
The workers, employed at Foxconn's Shenzen, China plant, were arrested by Chinese authorities on Dec. 26, 2010 and officially charged with violating company trade secret regulations on March 23, DigiTimes reported Thursday, citing a Chinese-language sznews.com report.
Foxconn, a subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry, assembles iPads, iPhones and iPods for Apple.
Images of iPad 2 cases featuring a rear-facing camera and a thinner profile than the first-generation media tablet from Apple began to surface last December. At the time, Foxconn reported its suspicions that the design had been leaked by its own employees, according to reports.
The Shenzen manufacturing plant has been a source of controversy in recent years for Hon Hai Precision Industry and its high-profile partner Apple. A string of worker suicides put the spotlight on working conditions and pay rates at the plant, which houses some 420,000 employees inside the factory complex.
Foxconn announced a series of pay raises last June in the wake of the suicide, including a 30-percent, across-the-board pay hike and a 66-percent performance-based raise for employees who get good marks following a three-month evaluation.
The date of a trial for the three Foxconn employees and possible penalties they may face was not known.