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Microsoft sues Google

Micorsoft sues Google as former MSN employee Kai-Fu Lee is hired away to lead Google's research and development drive in China.

Microsoft increased its war with Google earlier this month, when Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer filed a huge lawsuit of their own (does it pay to know the legal system?) against the world's most popular keyword search engine: Google.

Google has hired yet another key Microsoft employee and further infuriated Gates and Ballmer.
Microsoft in a legal complaint filed in Washington, Microsoft claims that Kai-Fu Lee (is not a free man), who hooked up with Goog a couple weeks back to lead an agressive research and development campaign in China. Micorsoft attorneys, looking tired and overworked, say the hiring of Kai-Fu Lee violates a strict noncompete agreement that Lee gleefully signed when he was first hired with an excessive compensation and salary package at Microsoft.

Lee was corporate vice president of Natural Interactive Services at Microsoft.
Microsoft attorneys urged the federal court in he ste of Washington with this request "We ask the Court to require Dr. Lee and Google to honor the confidentiality and non-competition agreements he signed when he began working for Microsoft," the Redmond, Washington-based company said in another litigation fueled press conference.

"Creating intellectual property is the essence of what we do at Microsoft, and we have a responsibility to our employees and our shareholders to protect our intellectual property. As a senior executive, Dr. Lee has direct knowledge of Microsoft’s trade secrets concerning search technologies and China business strategies. He has accepted a position focused on the same set of technologies and strategies for a direct competitor in egregious violation of his explicit contractual obligations."

In other words Dr. Lee packed his briefcase with internal documents and laid them on the conference table n Montain View and requested immediate stock option compensation from Google. The 10 shares of Goog stock transfered to Mr. Lee are projected to represent the value of five years of his former MSN salary.

Microsoft requested that the court prevent Lee and Google from undertaking any actions that are in violation of Lee's non-compete employment agreement with Microsoft. The lawsuit went onto request, as well as prevent Mr. Lee from "disclosing or misappropriating" any of Microsoft's established trade secrets or proprietary information, according to the legal complaint.

Microsoft also requested that the court prohibit Lee or any employee at Google from potentially luring other key Microsoft employees away from MSN, as well as from destroying key documents, in written or electronic format, that relate in any way to Microsoft's or Google's employment of Lee.

In a statement, Google executives said Microsoft's claims are "completely without merit" and that Google plans to fight the Microsoft Lawsuit. A google spokesperson made this comment:
"We're thrilled to have Dr. Lee on board at Google," and also went onto to add "Google will defend vigorously against these meritless claims from Microsoft and will fully support our new Google employee Dr. Lee."

Google and Microsoft have recently entered into a heated rivalry that involves advancements being implementd by Google that involve appilcations and areas long dominated by Microsoft.

Google and Microsoft are lining and drawing battle lines in the sand concerning email, desktop search, and most importantly control of the Browser. Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer (a Michigan native and University of Michigan graduate) has repeatedly expressed his intentions to dethrone Google as the king of keyword search. Google co-founder Larry Page (also a Michigan native and University of Michigan graduate) to date has basically ignored Ballmer's Battle crys.

However in Jnue of 2005 at the Microsoft Research Faculty Summit, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates inferred that Google is this year's flash in the pan technology vendor.

Microsoft and Google both refuse to acknowledge that any party could create a free operating system (similar to Linux) or a free search engine (similar to Google). Heck weren't both Microsoft and Google simply stolen technology that had been acquired and enhanced to meet Google and Microsoft's needs.

Ask any of these most influential technology leaders over the last (20) years and they will inform the world "that the best things in life are free" and possibly stolen.

Paul Allen (Microsoft cofounder)
Mark Andreessen (Mosaic developer/Netscape founder)
Tim Berners-Lee (founder and creator of the World Wide Web)
Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon.com)
Steve Case (founder and CEO of AOL)
Vint Cert (coauthor of TCP/IP protocol and current chairman of ICANN
John Chambers (CEO of Cisco Systems)
Michael Dell (Dell Computer CEO and Founder)
Don Estridge (PC pioneeer)
Sean Fannings (Napster creator)
Bill Gross (Idealab founder)
Andrew Grove (CEO of Intel)
Jeff Hawkins (Handspring CEO, Palm Pilot Inventor)
Andrew Hejlsberg (Turbo Pascal - Delphi creator)
Steve Jobs (Apple Computer CEO and founder)
Philippe Kahn (Borland founder)
Gordon Moore (Intel cofounder)
Ray Ozzie (Lotus Notes creator and Groove guru)
John Scully (former Apple CEO)
Linus Torvalds (inventor and trademark holder of Linux)
Steve Wozniak (Apple cofounder).

It is apparent that technology companies that require employees to sign noncompete agreements and prevent them from working at any competing company or try to keep them from luring other key employees away from their previous employers are usually not able to get legal backing from the court system.

This is not the first time Microsoft has taken legal action with former Microsoft employees based on non such agreements. One highly publicized case in 2000 involved Microsoft suing former employees for violating non-compete agreements as they left to start CrossGain a new software company.

Microsoft's non-compete lawsuits have in many caes caused former Microsoft employees to stop working at their new companies for a short period of time until the non-compete agrements expired. Several senior technology managers ad developers at Microsoft have left in recent months to join Google.

The Google press release only states that Google views the acquistion of Mr. Lee critical o their artificial intelligence software developments and their agressive research and development causes in rapidly expanding China.

Google is on pace to open their China facility before the close of 2005.
Look for the war between Microsoft and Google to heat up much further in the coming months.

The GBrowser is about to change everything.