Motorola Inc has dragged its former executive Michael Fenger to court for revealing its trade secrets by taking a job with iPhone maker Apple, which it said violated a non-compete agreement.

Fenger had accepted ''millions of dollars in cash, restricted stock units, and stock options'' while agreeing not to join a competitor for two years after leaving Motorola, the mobile phone maker said in its lawsuit.

In the suit filed in the Cook County court in Illinnoise, Chicago, Schaumburg-based Motorola sought direction to stop Fenger from working for Apple for two years and to bar him from soliciting or hiring Motorola employees or disclosing Motorola's confidential information.

The suit also demanded damages and repayment of stock options given to him while signing the non-compete agreement.

Fenger, who oversaw Motorola's mobile devices as senior vice president in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, took the iPhone job less than a month after leaving Motorola. He now serves as vice president of global iPhone sales.

The former executive also hired away two high-level Motorola employees who have access to Motorola's trade secrets and customer relationships, the lawsuit filed in Illinois said.

Motorola, an early bird which failed to cater to the market, has been loosing several of its valuable employees to rival companies in recent months as the company continued to lose ground.

Motorola had, in 2005, filed a similar suit against former COO Mike Zafirovski when he was hired as CEO of Nortel Networks. Zafirovski was forced to refrain from contacting certain customers and from shaping Nortel's strategy to compete against Motorola for 18 months after he left.

More Motorola employees are now flocking to Apple while iPhones are heading to Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America where Fenger had run Motorola operations earlier. This is what really worries Motorola.

Source:domain-b.com