BEIJING, Sept. 9 -- U.S. attorneys for online search engine rivals Google and Microsoft finished Thursday pitching their arguments in a court battle over a Chinese Internet market expert Google hired away from its rival.

    Judge Steve Gonzalez in the western state of Washington was to decide whether Lee Kaifu should be banned from starting his job setting up a computer research center in China until the matter is resolved in a civil court trial slated to start in January of 2006.

    Microsoft has filed a civil suit that contends Lee violated confidentiality and non-competition agreements with Microsoft when he jumped ship for Google in July. The suit was filed against Lee and Google.

    Google has countered that neither it nor Lee have done anything wrong under the law in the state of California, where Google has its Silicon Valley headquarters.

    A judge in July granted an emergency request by Microsoft to bar Lee from starting his new job heading Google¡¯s planned China research center.

    (Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)

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