Judge Allows Kai-Fu Lee to work for Google
A state judge has finally cleared the way Tuesday for a former Microsoft Corp. executive to perform most of the tasks rival Google Inc. had hired him to do. This means that Kai-Fu Lee can recruit and staff workers at Google’s new center in China.
King County Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez’s decision supersedes a temporary restraining order he imposed this summer and remains in effect until Microsoft’s lawsuit against Google goes to trial in January. Kai-Fu Lee remains barred from working on products, services or projects he worked on at Microsoft, including computer search technology. But while the judge said that a noncompete agreement Lee signed with Microsoft is valid, he said recruiting and staffing a Google center in China would not violate that agreement. Lee cannot set budget or compensation levels or define the research that Google will do in China, but he can hire people to work there, the judge said.
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