Microsoft sued one of its former executives and Google on Tuesday, the same day the internet search engine company announced it had hired Kai-Fu Lee to head up a research and development centre in China.
In a complaint filed in King County Superior Court, the Redmond-based software maker argued that by taking a job with a direct competitor, Lee is breaking contractual promises he signed when he joined Microsoft in 2000 and that Google ”is intentionally assisting Lee”.
”Accepting such a position with a direct Microsoft competitor like Google violates the narrow noncompetition promise Lee made when he was hired as an executive,” Microsoft said in its lawsuit.
”Google is fully aware of Lee’s promises to Microsoft, but has chosen to ignore them, and has encouraged Lee to violate them.”
Tom Burt, a lawyer for Microsoft, said Lee announced on Monday he was leaving for the Google job and gave no indication he plans to honour an agreement that he not work for a direct competitor until a year after leaving the company.
”To the contrary, they’re saying, ‘In your face,”’ Burt told The Associated Press.
Google did not immediately return a call for comment, and efforts to reach Lee were not successful.
Lee established Microsoft’s research lab in Beijing several years ago and at one point oversaw development of the company’s MSN internet search technology, including a desktop search service released earlier this year.
In recent years, he has served as corporate vice president of the company’s Interactive Services Division. – Sapa-AP