Google anticipated Microsoft legal tussle
C|Net | at | by Mike
When it hired Kai-Fu Lee away from Microsoft last month, Google anticipated the prospect of legal wrangling with its rival, according to court documents unsealed earlier this week.
Google in fact had devised a Plan B for Lee--12 months of paid leave in the event the executive is barred from working at the search giant because of a noncompete clause with his former employer, according to documents filed in King County Superior Court in Washington state.
Lee, who founded Microsoft's research lab in China and was hired by Google several weeks ago to launch its R&D center in the same region, is fighting the noncompete clause in the employment contract he signed with Microsoft in 2000.