Google has asked a federal judge in California to rule that Kai-Fu Lee's contract with Microsoft is unenforceable and that the researcher should be allowed to join Google unfettered by the terms of his employment deal.
Tuesday's preliminary court ruling in the battle over Dr Kai-Fu Lee has been welcomed by Google.
A former Microsoft executive can immediately begin recruiting staff for a Google development centre in China, rather than waiting until after a January trial, a Washington state judge ruled on Tuesday.
Microsoft says it found a potentially important document in its case against its former executive Kai-Fu Lee and Google in the "recycle bin" of one of Lee's computers.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer vowed to 'kill' Google in an expletive-laced, chair-throwing tirade when a senior engineer told him he was leaving the company to go work for Google, the engineer claimed in court documents made public on Friday.
Ten years ago, Microsoft executives worried that an Internet platform could threaten Windows. The nightmare now has a name: Google.
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