TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Ex Microsoft Exec Free to Work for Google

Ex Microsoft Exec Free to Work for Google

Reuters News Wire (reuters@telecom-digest.org)
Tue, 13 Sep 2005 14:21:50 -0500

A Washington state judge has cleared the way for Google Inc. to hire a
former Microsoft executive to head its Chinese research and
development center so long as the employee does not recruit from
Microsoft.

King County Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez found that former
Microsoft Vice President Kai-Fu Lee can begin working for Google by
setting up a research office in China and recruiting software
engineers if he does not use confidential information gleaned while he
worked at Microsoft.

"Microsoft has not sufficiently shown that it has a clear legal or
equitable right to enjoin Dr. Lee, pending trial, from establishing
and staffing a Google development facility in China," Gonzalez wrote
in a preliminary injunction ruling.

However, in his order, the judge enjoined Lee and his new employer
from working on any product or service that relies on confidential
information tied to search, natural language processing and speech
recognition he obtained while working for Microsoft. Google lawyers
had agreed to these specific restrictions ahead of the ruling, a
Google spokesman said. The judge was very specific on this point:
"no 'whispering', no playing games in job descriptions, etc, you will
be monitored on this point as neeed."

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.

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