News

Microsoft Wins First Scrimmage Against Google in Employee Lawsuit

• By Becky Nagel
• 08/02/2005

The judge also ruled that Lee is prevented from sharing any trade secrets with Google. The order is good through Sept 6., when a motion for an injunction is scheduled to be heard. Microsoft filed the lawsuit against Lee and Google on July 19.

The order may not prevent Lee from taking his post, as Google said it does not feel Kai-Fu Lee's new position is competitive with his Microsoft tenure. "While we don't believe a [temporary restraining order] is necessary, we're gratified that the judge recognized that all Google and Dr. Lee have to do is avoid having Dr. Lee do anything competitive with what he did at Microsoft. As we have said all along, we have no intention of having him do that," Nicole Wong, Google associate general counsel, commented in a released statement. "The judge also ordered Microsoft to be more specific in identifying the matters that Dr. Lee worked on at Microsoft that they claim are competitive with what he will do at Google. We will be looking for clarification when Microsoft complies with the judge's order."

As evident by the lawsuit, Microsoft sees the situation differently. "As a senior executive, Dr. Lee has direct knowledge of Microsoft's trade secrets concerning search technologies and China business strategies," it commented when it announced the lawsuit. "He has accepted a position focused on the same set of technologies and strategies for a director competitor in egregious violation of his explicit contractual obligations."

Lee was hired to run Microsoft's research and development labs in China in 1999, and was most recently head working for the company on speech recognition technology. He signed the non-compete agreement in 2000, reports state.