SEATTLE - Microsoft is suing Google for hiring away one of its executives.
Microsoft also is suing the executive, Kai-Fu Lee, to enforce a one-year non-compete clause.
Google has hired him to head up a research and development center in China.
Microsoft says Lee is breaking a promise he signed when he joined Microsoft five years ago.
He established Microsoft's research lab in Beijing and at one point oversaw development of the MSN Internet search technology, including a desktop search service released earlier this year.
The suit was filed in King County Superior Court in Seattle. Google did not immediately return a call for comment.
Source