Fergie's Tech Blog

Red Herring: Microsoft Executive Frustrated

Via Red Herring.

In a courtroom drama laced with bitterness, Google sought to portray Kai-Fu Lee, the central player in its legal tussle with Microsoft, as more of a frustrated, out-of-the-loop whipping boy at Microsoft and less of the mastermind bulging at the seams with the Redmond software giant’s trade secrets.

Microsoft is charging that Dr. Lee, a former Microsoft executive who landed a job at Google, violated his non-compete agreement by accepting a role at Google similar to his role at Microsoft.

Microsoft was granted a temporary restraining order by a Seattle, court barring Dr. Lee from working for Google. Tuesday’s session was a show-cause hearing on the temporary restraining order.

Dr. Lee, who was in charge of building Microsoft’s research center in Beijing, said he sent a memo to a fellow Microsoft executive saying he was deeply disappointed at Microsoft’s “incompetence” in China. He said that Microsoft wasted “so many years in China with little to show for it.”

posted by Fergie @ 9/07/2005 07:44:00 AM