Microsoft yesterday sued former executive Kai-Fu Lee and Google,
hours after the search engine announced that Microsoft's former
corporate vice president was to head up Google’s new product
research and development centre in China.
Microsoft said in a statement: “Creating intellectual property
is the essence of what we do at Microsoft, and we have a
responsibility to our employees and our shareholders to protect our
intellectual property.”
It added: “As a senior executive, Dr Lee has direct knowledge of
Microsoft’s trade secrets concerning search technologies and China
business strategies. He has accepted a position focused on the same
set of technologies and strategies for a direct competitor in
egregious violation of his explicit contractual obligations."
Microsoft is asking the Court to require Dr Lee and Google to
honour the confidentiality and non-competition agreements (known as
restrictive covenants in the UK) that Dr Lee signed when he began
working for Microsoft.
Google has made no comment on the suit as yet.
