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In a bizarre out-of-character altruistic move, a Washington State court upheld a complaint by software behemoth Microsoft preventing former vice president, Kai-Fu Lee, from taking a job at search supremo Google. Microsoft sought damages and an injunction upholding the non-compete clause and other terms of Lee's contract of employment, including a bar on sharing Microsoft trade secrets. Companies can have legitimate reasons for preventing ex-employees moving on to competitors, but specific provision must be made in the original contract of employment. Under English Law (on which older US law is also based), there is no implied term restricting an employee from competitive activities after the employment has ended. But according to Roger Sinclair, contract lawyer at Egos Ltd., it is permissible to engineer restrictive terms, which go no further than is reasonably necessary to protect legitimate business interests – such as trade secrets, confidential information, or business connections. For IT contractors the practice is most commonly found in agent's boilerplate agreements preventing "going direct" within a prescribed time from the end of the contract. Sinclair says that such terms must be scrutinised carefully to see whether the restraint of trade can be justified as being reasonable to protect those interests. Go too far, and they will generally be unenforceable. Microsoft have software and systems that cover almost the entire IT industry, it is difficult to imagine how an employee can fail to compete once the Seattle nest has been flown. "Under English law, non-competition obligations are generally in restraint of trade, and therefore void," says Sinclair. In litigation-mad America and increasingly in the slavish UK, the law is used strategically to delay, deny and destabilise, regardless of rights or wrongs, but questions are being asked as to why Microsoft should wish to prevent Lee heading up Google's China operations. Lee joined the Seattle software outfit in 1998, and as corporate vice president of the Natural Interactive Services Division (NISD) was responsible for the development of technologies and services for making the user interface simpler and more natural. NISD includes technologies and products for speech, natural language, advanced search and help, and authoring and learning technologies. Could Lee be the man responsible for such "simple and natural" usability inventions as randomly operating sticky keys, focus-stealing dialogue boxes; drop-out connections, "phone home" error reporting, spasmodic desktop refreshing, disappearing menu items and a paperclip that rides a paper aircraft? If so, Microsoft has halted a fabulous opportunity to install a Trojan in their competitor's midst. Google has become famous through the usability of its software, simple web sites and ease-of-use toolbars, and though Windows has a 95 per cent share of the desktop OS market, usability is not its most remarked upon feature. Normally users run Windows because the computer comes with a copy installed. Adding Windows bloat and obfuscation to Google tools could spell disaster for a company that relies on elective use of its products. Google has employed several ex-Microsoft employees in recent months and speculation is rife that chief executive Steve Ballmer decided to call a halt to the flood as a statement of frustration rather than out of any deep-seated business sense. But there is another possibility. Maybe Microsoft is creating a fuss in an attempt to "big up" Lee's credentials and stir Google into taking his ideas more seriously. "If they don't want us to have him that badly, he must be really good," might be a phrase buzzing round the higher echelons of Google's Mountain View head office right now. It would be a shame if they swallowed the bait and gave us "natural and usable" Google modelled in Window's image. William Knight Aug 4, 2005 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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