January 28, 2009 by Matt Thomas
You may remember a little while ago we reported that Apple had hired IBM chip expert Mark Papermaster, much to big blue’s annoyance. IBM it seems were so put out by this that they filed a lawsuit against Papermaster, citing a non-compete agreement he signed while with the company that they claimed precluded him from working for a direct competitor.
Papermaster, who is due to start work as Apple’s head of device hardware engineering in April, has now settled the lawsuit out of court. However, the terms of that settlement may prove restrictive to both him and potentially Apple.
The former IBM employee will be required to check in with his former company if he even suspects that any of the developments he is spearheading at Apple infringe on proprietary or confidential information gleaned from his years at the hardware manufacturer.
This is how the judge put it…
“To the extent that Mr. Papermaster has a question as to whether any information he intends to or may disclose or otherwise use in any way is IBM confidential information Mr. Papermaster will raise such question with IBM before any disclosure or use of that information,” – Judge Kenneth Karas.
That’s pretty restrictive, I think you’ll agree. Importantly it’s going to be IBM and only IBM who decide whether the developments are derived from their information and the process is not subject to appeal. They have basically just been handed a solid gold way to mess with Apple.
It also leaves the company vulnerable if they happen to come up with anything similar to a protected IBM technique, which in a field as specialised as chip design is quite possible.
Maybe it’s just me, but there may be trouble brewing here…
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