Legal disputes started up between Microsoft and Google when Kai-Fu Lee, a former Microsoft executive, left his position of corporate vice-president of Microsoft's Interactive Services Division, in order to head up a new research effort in China for Google. Microsoft took legal action, with Google counter-suing. It now appears that Microsoft has won the first round, and that Kai-Fu Lee can't begin the work he was hired to do until another round of legal arguments in September, according to King County Superior Court judge.
Judge Steven Gonzalez granted Microsoft's request for a temporary restraining order to keep Kai-Fu Lee, the highest-ranking executive at Microsoft to leave for Google, from working on anything that competes with what he did at Microsoft.