The saga of Kai-Fu Lee continues as his new employer seeks summary judgment in federal court.
He’s a resident of Palo Alto, California, paying California taxes. His picture appears on a California driver’s license, he’s registered to vote in California, and he’s even got phone service in California.
Taking all that into consideration, Google wants the federal court in San Jose to consider Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, probably the most famous ex-employee of tech titan Microsoft, a California resident and declare the non-compete agreement he signed with Microsoft null and void.
ZDNet reported that court filings last week show how Google has asked for summary judgment in the case. The search engine company, regarded by Bill Gates as being more like Microsoft than any other competitor in the market, claimed in those filings that the non-compete clause violates California law.
In the filings, it is noted that Dr. Lee expects to be in China for about two years before returning to California. Meanwhile, Microsoft has filed suit in Washington state to force Dr. Lee to obey the one-year period where he cannot directly compete with Microsoft.
That competition issue forms the biggest bit of contention between Microsoft and Google. Google says Dr. Lee’s work will not directly compete with Microsoft because he did not work on search technology or on Microsoft’s China operations while in Redmond. Microsoft counters by saying Dr. Lee had an important role in both areas.
Dr. Lee has said he’s never seen Microsoft search source code, and only worked on speech technology, a field where he possesses a doctorate.
David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
