All this seems to make perfect sense to me. I really have to side with M$ on this one. This is all IF my assumptions are correct.
1) the guy is being hired to do search related work at google, which he already worked on at M$
2) the use of any confidential info which was given to him while he was employed at M$, which could be used against M$ by a competitor
3) the guy got paid millions.
This is done everyday with smaller companies. I see this a lot in retail. I use to work for AT&T wireless, and there was also a non-compete clause that said we couldn't go to a competitor for a specific amount of time. The thing is everyone did. People jumped from AT&T to Sprint to Verizon all the time. They only reason there isnt a lawsuit is because millions of dollars was not involved.
M$ has every right to protect its assets (which in this case is the info in Lee's head) and that info has an expiration time of 1 year. So let it expire and then let the guy get on with his life.
BTW: doesnt this show how large of a market China will become?
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All this seems to make perfect sense to me. I really have to side with M$ on this one. This is all IF my assumptions are correct. 1) the guy is being hired to do search related work at google, which he already worked on at M$ 2) the use of any confidential info which was given to him while he was employed at M$, which could be used against M$ by a competitor 3) the guy got paid millions. This is done everyday with smaller companies. I see this a lot in retail. I use to work for AT&T wireless, and there was also a non-compete clause that said we couldn't go to a competitor for a specific amount of time. The thing is everyone did. People jumped from AT&T to Sprint to Verizon all the time. They only reason there isnt a lawsuit is because millions of dollars was not involved. M$ has every right to protect its assets (which in this case is the info in Lee's head) and that info has an expiration time of 1 year. So let it expire and then let the guy get on with his life. BTW: doesnt this show how large of a market China will become?