Apple Inc. chief executive Steve Jobs has been subpoenaed to testify by the Securities and Exchange Commission in a civil stock option backdating case against Apple's former chief counsel, according to two people familiar with the case.

The subpoena is considered routine and should not suggest that Jobs is suspected of wrongdoing, according to these people, who asked not to be identified.

The subpoena is not a public record.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

Marc Fagel, the SEC's associate regional director in San Francisco, said it is routine for the SEC to subpoena witnesses as part of a trial's discovery phase, but declined to say whether Jobs had been subpoenaed.

Legal experts said it isn't surprising that Jobs would be tapped to answer questions in the government's case against Nancy Heinen, Apple's former chief counsel.