Three Foxconn Employees Arrested And Charged For Leaking iPad 2 Design

According to a report today from DigiTimes, three employees of electronics manufacturer Foxconn in Shenzhen, China, have been arrested and charged for leaking the design of the iPad 2. The Apple tablet was launched just last month with its design and specs kept deeply under wraps the way Apple usually conducts launches, but properly sized shell and case accessories had already begun selling online as early as December of last year.

The three employees were suspected of having leaked the designs to outside accessories companies in China. The iPad 2 shells being sold online were molded to the correct sizes and cutouts to accommodate the new 33% thinner body, rear-facing camera, new location of the integrated mic, and the larger speaker grille.

The cases being made to fit the iPad 2 so accurately had Foxconn suspicious that their own employees must have leaked the specs and thus reported the situation to the police. The local police arrested the three suspected employees on December 26th of last year, and officially charged them for violating the company's trade secrets on March 23rd.

[via AppleInsider]