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Judge Clears the Way for Google's Microsoft Hire
MarkEst1973 was one of the first to write to tell us MSNBC is reporting that a Judge has cleared the way for Google to hire former Microsoft employee Kai-Fu Lee. The hire does come with several limitations and Lee was also found to have 'misled his former employer and taken advantage of confidential Microsoft information'. This comes as a follow up to the original story in which Microsoft sued Google in order to prevent the hire. Tom Burt was quoted as saying that "Dr. Lee is going to be the highest-paid HR manager ever."
Google Blog link.
I am defenseless. Use your button. Mod me down with all of your hatred.
It is a ONE YEAR NON-COMPETE! Also, the enjoinment is for the course of the trial.
The point of it is to have a court order limiting what he can do during the suit so he can't keep "violating" the non-compete during the suit itself.
"What is the strategic importance of an HR manager to a company like Google? I'm not dissing HR managers, I just don't really understand how they fit into the picture, and what one can do for a company."
Two mistakes here:
Here's the entire quote from Tom Burt:
In other words, Dr. Lee isn't really being hired as an HR manager. Tom Burt was being ironic. He was making a funny. His was a wry comment on the ruling that Dr. Lee can't use his expertise when working at Google -- in other words, all he can do is hire them, but not talk to them. Tom Burt was using humor and analogies to point out that if Dr. Lee were to comply with the ruling (which, as somebody pointed out, is unenforcable) then he'd effectively be working as a mere HR manager. Amazingly, even Microsoft employees can sometimes engage in wit and humor.
Again, Dr. Lee's title isn't HR Manager. It was a joke.
Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.
Microsoft or not, they were right to challenge his move to Google. Mr. Lee grossly breached his NDA and shared confidential information with a competitor. And it appears he did it to coax google into hiring him for millions. He acted in bad faith and he should be thankful that he got away with as much as he did.
If our VP of XYZ left our company to go work for our competition, *and* we found out he was sharing secret documents with them before he left, *and* was giving them strategic advice based - well, if I was on the legal staff, I'd sue, too.
While the article is not very specific, usually this this sort of injunction only applies until the main issue is resolved at trial, not indefinately. Note that Google had already agreed to this prior to MS pushing for an injunction.
Even if enforced, the non-compete is only good for a year. However, Google is hiring Lee to work in California and China. The non-compete was done in the state of Washington. Generally speaking, California state law does not allow enforcement of non-competes, although apparently there have been exceptions.
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. -- Winston Churchill
This case isn't under California's jurisdiction. California law is irrelevent.
The contract was entered in the state of Washington. The contract stipulates legal action be brought in the state of Washington. Lee was employed in Washington. Microsoft is based in Washington.
Jurisdiction and venue for the case is Washington.