TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Compal Electronics, Inc., one of the largest contract computer notebook makers in the world, was fined after former employees of rival Inventec Corporation leaked business secrets, reports said Wednesday.

Taipei District Court ruled Compal should pay a fine of NT$200,000 (US$6,600), while the three defendants received prison terms and were ordered to pay compensation to Inventec. Appeals are possible against all the verdicts in the case, per CNA.

To grow its server business, Compal lured two Inventec employees, named Chiang (江) and Chu (朱), with high salaries to a plant in China in 2017, according to prosecutors. The court ruled that Chiang had leaked Inventec secrets 12 times, and Chu once. A third Inventec staffer, named Wu (吳), breached the company’s intellectual property rights once, the court said.

The three defendants pleaded innocent and failed to settle with their former employer. Chiang received a prison sentence of 30 months, Chu 16 months, and Wu six months.

The court also ruled that Chiang should pay NT$3.2 million, Chu NT$300,000, and Wu NT$100,000 to compensate Inventec. Chiang, Chu, and Compal also needed to delete the confidential business information in the case as defined by Wednesday’s verdict.