Motorola Cries About Trade Secrets, Apple Says "Yeah, About That…"

Like Nokia before it, the days of Motorola owning the handset market are gone. Sure, there are plenty of people that still have Razr's, but we don't talk to them anymore because they are sooo 2005 it's not even funny.

As we all kinda know, the creative and technical teams that dreamed up the Razr have drifted off to other ventures. Trying to tap into the design snazziness that made the Razr the "It" phone for a good couple years, companies like Dell and even the king of design sexiness, Apple, lured most of that team away from Motorola to work their magic on other brands. While we're all still waiting for Dell to anything close to sexy, we have seen the beautiful plastics that Apple continues to churn out. Which is kinda the problem that Motorola is having…

You see, when a person like Michael Fenger signs on to head up the U.S. handset division for Motorola, they are typically required to sign a Non-Compete Agreement with their contract stating that they will not work for a competitor within two years or so of leaving the company. But Fenger, who finally jumped off the sinking ship that is Motorola this past March, singed on to be the VP of global iPhone sales for Apple. Which is kinda a competitive product to the iPhone. Just a little. Considering everyone that owned a Razr is now coming to the end of their 2-year contract and signing up for iPhones.

So Motorola is suing Fenger and asking the courts for about $1 million and a court-order stopping Fenger from working with Apple until March 2010. Apparently, Non-Competes don't hold up well in California, but my home state of Illinois is quite fond of them, and it just so happens the filing is here in the big I, as Motorola USA is based in Chicago 'burb Schaumburg. The court and/or Fenger and/or Apple have yet to respond, but I have a feeling that Motorola might get what they want, even if they are being whiny little babies about the whole thing.

Motorola sues iPhone sales executive over trade secrets [CNET]
[Via: Engadget]