Microsoft Sues Google For Hiring MS Exec

bonch writes "So it begins...Microsoft is suing Google for wooing away a top executive to work in a China research lab. Microsoft is accusing Kai-Fu Lee of breaking his contract by taking a job within a year of leaving Microsoft, and accused Google of 'intentionally assisting Lee.' Google describes the claims as 'completely without merit' and vows to defend against them."

Pshaw

[Anonymous Coward]

Your capitalistic "contracts" have no purpose in the glorious workers paradise of China.

And in other news, cows moo.

[Aeron65432]

Intentionally assisting him? As in, giving him a job?

This makes M$ seem

[Jambon]

like a jealous girlfriend. "Hey! You just left me! You can't go running of with other women so soon! Noooooooooooo!"

$64,000 question!

[Sanity]

I wonder who Slashdot is going to back in this legal battle?!

Re:Um.. dude's gotta fuckin work.

[thundercatslair]

Yes, If I was making contracts I would put the dumbest shit in it. I would do my best to make sure they don't read it either.

Re:This makes M$ seem

[Eberlin]

and in this case, going out with a really hot looking girl that'll cook him dinner, treat him right, and um...runs a heck of a beowulf cluster.

Re:And in other news, cows moo.

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Intentionally assisting him? As in, giving him a job?

Who knows, maybe they provided the guy with a ladder to climb the electrified barb-wired fence surrounding the Microsoft compound, and passed packets full of poisoned bits of meat to neutralize the guard dogs, so that he could escape.

superman vs...

[Daedalus-Ubergeek]

Is it just me or does the concept of two megacorporations battling it out remind you of when you used to argue with your friends over "Who would win a fight? Superman or Batman?"

(Of course many of us true geeks know the answer to that one)

Re:Maybe try reading your contract next time, Lee

[Monoman]

Can MS prove they really compete with Google? ;-)

Re:It just goes to show..

[Atragon]

If they're completely inflexible do you really want to work for Hugenormous Pan-galactic Deathcorp Inc.?

Can I at least have a few Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters first?

Re:Lawsuit on Google?

[LiquidCoooled]

Google are there to help everyone.
I bet this guys' first action was to google for a lawyer.

Re:Maybe try reading your contract next time, Lee

[hublan]

Maybe he should have read his contract

He tried to find the relevant clauses but MSN Search only found unrelated NDAs for "public" Microsoft protocols.

Re:It just goes to show..

[ricewind]

If they're completely inflexible do you really want to work for Hugenormous Pan-galactic Deathcorp Inc.?

Hell yes! Imagine how impressive your business card would be.

Re:"intentially"?

[Anonymous Coward]

In this case it's because he wrote 'an hilarious'.

Re:Wait a minute...

[ssimontis]

Its a mixed result for Microsoft in the end. Sure, they get there way with stupid arguments, but they burn in hell later on.

Re:YRO

[zoloto]

This could be just explained in this way.

Headlines in papers don't use punctuation. Neither does the YRO.. where correctly it would be "Your Rights, Online" Where "Your Rights" are being discussed "Online".

Good grief! Stop over-analyzing things and get to the story!

Re:Wait a minute...

[sgant]

Yeah, me too. Doing something like this is chickenshit in my opinion...no matter who. Legal for sure, but mainly just a jab at the guy that's leaving...a final "fuck you" if you will.

Re:Usually

[javamann]

Never had this problem. Every time I leave a job I go into the bosses office and do a brain dump all over his desk. Usually I leave dumber than when I came.

Poaching.

[mageofchrisz]

SEATTLE (AP) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) sued Google Inc. (GOOG) on Tuesday, accusing it of poaching a top executive the search engine company had wooed away to head a new research lab in China.

At least we can be sure that future top executives will have no tusks [slashdot.org] so incidents like this will never happen!

Re:Wait a minute...

[LoraxLorax]

Where can I get these kitten burgers of which you speak? And do they have puppy fries?

Re:Wait a minute...

[Asic Eng]

You can't convict me of murder if I throw you in two feet of water and you drown, just because you're either too stupid or too stubborn to stand up.

Of course I can't, I would be dead! :-)