I figured they did but I recall at least 3 claims by touch screen manufactures in the last year that they were 'the chosen one' for the then unnamed iPad. If I recall right, and that's kinda iffy, I think the first couple turned out to be incorrect or they got dropped for the final vendor. Either way, it stirred up a good bit of discussion on the techie blogs and got the ball rolling on an unending bag of rumors. Not that I took them seriously.
Of course, if you are not 'really' the true manufacturer, then I guess you certainly didn't sign an NDA. So you maybe bump share prices for a bit at the expense of a possible slap on the wrist that probably won't happen because you are also being a marketing agent for your target product who benefits but maintains plausible deny-ability.
Not arguing, just expanding on my thoughts that any company benefits from the global pre-release rumor mill that the Internet has provided and this might have been even more the case for the iPad, even if it wasn't Apples direct intention. However, to your point, it might have played out into a disadvantage this time, rather than an advantage.
