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Microsoft Wins First Scrimmage Against Google in Employee Lawsuit
Late last week in Seattle, Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez issued a temporary
restraining order preventing Google from asking its intended head of China operations,
former Microsoft employee Kai-Fu Lee, from doing anything that could be seen
as competing with Microsoft.
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.
Trial has been set for January 9.
About the Author
Becky Nagel is the former editorial director and director of Web for 1105 Media's Converge 360 group, and she now serves as vice president of AI for company, specializing in developing media, events and training for companies around AI and generative AI technology. She's the author of "ChatGPT Prompt 101 Guide for Business Users" and other popular AI resources with a real-world business perspective. She regularly speaks, writes and develops content around AI, generative AI and other business tech. Find her on X/Twitter @beckynagel.