Here is a rare story of industrial espionage from South Korea-- the Yonhap News Agency reports 11 people were arrested for allegedly stealing and selling AMOLED technology secrets from Samsung Display.

The arrests include employees and researchers from both Samsung and an unnamed "rival company"-- including a former Samsung researcher suspected of receiving 190 million won ($168544) on November 2011 for stealing data on the "small mask scanning" technology used in the construction of TV-size AMOLED displays.

Apparently bearing a grudge at Samsung after failing to get a promotion, the researcher-spy even accepted a job at the rival company... before trying to sell the same information to a Chinese manufacturer after getting disgruntled with his new employer.

Who was the "rival company" buying industrial secrets from Samsung? Until the Korean police release more details, we can play the speculation game... maybe it was LG Display, who is also working on the technology?

Currently in use in mobile device displays, AMOLED is growing bigger-- both Samsung and LG revealed AMOLED TVs at CES 2012 earlier this year.

Go 11 Arrested Over Suspected Leak of Cutting-Edge Display Technology (Yonhap News Agency)