Today, a federal courthouse in San Jose will be the venue for the next round of the Microsoft and Google bout over the employment of Kai-Fu Lee.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Main Event. Let’s get ready to argue! Ok, Michael Buffer probably won’t be announcing the start of courtroom proceedings this afternoon in San Jose. If either of the two combatants has its way, they won’t spend much time in the courtroom.
Two motions have been scheduled for consideration by US District Court Judge Ronald Whyte, ZDNet reported. Google wants Dr. Lee’s employment contract with Microsoft voided and summary judgment issued. If that happens, the case will end without a trial
Microsoft would like the judge to either dismiss Google’s suit, transfer the case to the state of Washington, or stay the suit. The latter request would maintain the status quo created by a Washington court, which allowed Dr. Lee to work for Google in China as a talent recruiter but not on any technical projects.
Google has not responded to Microsoft’s offer of a settlement, which would ultimately keep Dr. Lee from doing search or speech technology related work until the end of a noncompete agreement with Microsoft in July.
Instead, Google hopes that California’s legal tendency to favor an employee’s right to work will trump Microsoft’s noncompete agreement. Dr. Lee has been working to help bring aboard talent for Google’s Chinese operations. He was deluged with job seekers when the company began to make job postings available there in September.
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
