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• The suit was filed in a Washington state court against Google and Kai-Fu Lee, who until Monday was the corporate vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Services Division.
• "Accepting such a position with a direct Microsoft competitor like Google violates the narrow non-competition promise Lee made when he was hired as an executive," Microsoft said in its lawsuit, which was seen by CNET News.com.
• In the suit, Microsoft seeks monetary damages as well as an injunction upholding the noncompete clause and other provisions of Lee's contract, including terms barring him from sharing Microsoft trade secrets.
• Google has emerged as a top rival for Microsoft, and several notable employees have left the software giant for Google in recent months.
• Google issued a press release on Lee's hiring and announced plans to open a China research and development center this quarter.
• Lee, an expert in speech recognition technology, founded Microsoft's China research lab in the late 1990s and worked at Silicon Graphics Inc. and Apple Computer before joining Microsoft.
• Though workers leave tech companies for rivals all the time, it's not uncommon for a dispute to end up in court, particularly when an executive has a contract with a noncompete clause.
• Microsoft has turned to legal channels before to pursue former employees who it felt were unfairly competing against the company.
• Notably, the company sued when former executive Tod Nielsen and a number of ex-Microsoft employees went to work for Crossgain, a start-up that was focused on allowing business applications to run over the Web.
• A Microsoft lawyer said in an interview that Lee's move to join Google was a "particularly egregious" violation of the noncompete agreement that he had signed when he joined Microsoft.
• "He has access to sensitive information, to trade secrets about our search technology and business plans and our China business strategies," Deputy General Counsel Tom Burt told CNET News.com.