Ex-Microsoft exec cleared to work for Google

SAN FRANCISCO - A Washington judge today cleared the way for a former Microsoft executive to go to work for Google in China, but placed tough restrictions on confidential information he gleaned from working at Microsoft.

At the same time, King County Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez found that former Microsoft vice president Kai-Fu Lee had misled his former employer and taken advantage of confidential Microsoft information when first working at Google.

This could help Microsoft when the case seeking to hold Lee to a confidentiality pact goes to trial in January, a Microsoft spokesman said.

The courtroom arguments reflect an increasingly bitter rivalry between the two companies, which have begun facing off in the areas of Web search and services, as well as hiring.

Lee can begin working for Google by setting up a research office in China and recruiting software engineers but is restricted from using confidential information gleaned while he worked at Microsoft, the judge found.

"Dr. Lee is going to be the highest-paid HR (human resources) manager ever," said Tom Burt, Microsoft's vice president and deputy general counsel.

"He can't tell them what to do, he can't direct them, he can't manage them," Burt said of recruits hired by Lee.

In testimony earlier this month, Lee said that he left Microsoft after becoming frustrated with the company's approach to doing business in China.

Lee described an interchange with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates while working at the company in which Gates had used a string of expletives to describe how the Chinese government was retaliating against the software giant.

A spokesman said Gates denies making the comments.

Lee, 43, had established Microsoft's research and development center in Beijing before moving to Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, to work on software that allows computers to process speech and natural language data.

Microsoft won a temporary restraining order against Lee and Google in July. Google, based in Mountain View, California, counter-sued in its home state to block Microsoft's lawsuit.

The judge enjoined Lee and his new employer from working on any product or service that relies on confidential information tied to search, natural language processing and speech recognition he obtained while working for Microsoft.

Google lawyers had agreed to these specific restrictions ahead of the ruling, a Google spokesman said.

"Microsoft has not sufficiently shown that it has a clear legal or equitable right to enjoin Dr Lee, pending trial, from establishing and staffing a Google development facility in China," the judge wrote in a preliminary injunction ruling.

Lee is set to report for work at Google's Mountain View, California, headquarters tomorrow.

In a phone interview, Lee said he was excited to finally get to work for Google. "Before today, I have not really been able to work, talk to people, or email anybody," he said.

Lee said he will travel to China in the next week or two to begin a tour promoting a new book which the respected Chinese academic has written to promote positive cultural values and which he is targeting at Chinese students.

While in China he will complete the search for a location for Google's first research and development facility. Beijing and Shanghai are under final consideration. Eventually, both cities will have Google research facilities, he said.

"It is really a question of which city will be first," he said.

- REUTERS