The strange case of Mark Papermaster: The newly minted Apple executive was recently ordered by a federal judge to stop working. (Seriously? In this economy?)
A longtime IBM employee, Papermaster accepted a job offer from Apple in October, declined a counteroffer from IBM and gave two weeks notice, which IBM accepted, Computerworld reports. Later in the month, IBM filed an injunction to keep Papermaster from his new job on the basis that he'd signed an agreement not to work for a competitor for a year.
From Computerworld:
U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Karas ruled that Mark Papermaster, who was announced as Apple's new vice president of devices hardware engineering only last Tuesday, must "immediately cease his employment with Apple Inc. until further order of this court." Karas did not explain his reasons for the order, saying only that he would issue an opinion at a later date.
Apple Insider reports that Papermaster and Apple's lawyers are arguing that “his top spot in the division handling the iPhone and iPod touch carries too narrow a scope to risk trade secrets leaking out,” while IBM is arguing that both companies' products involve use of the same intelligence--microprocessors.
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