Motorola Sues Ex-Exec; Alleges Trade Secrets Given To Apple

Motorola has sued an ex-employee for allegedly breaking a non-compete agreement after he took a job at Apple as head of global iPhone sales, and helping lure away two other former Moto employees to Apple ( NSDQ: AAPL). The lawsuit, filed in an Illinois court on Thursday, reports that Mike Fenger, former SVP of mobile devices for Europe, Middle East and Africa, received "millions of dollars in cash, restricted stock units, and stock options" in exchange for agreeing not to work for a competitor for at least two years after leaving Motorola ( NYSE: MOT). Fenger quit the ailing handset maker in March, surfacing at the end of the month at Apple. The suit, as the WSJ points out, doesn't actually claim that Fenger took off with specific documents, but that all knowledge he gained while working at Motorola is proprietary information. "He cannot perform his duties for Apple without inevitably disclosing Motorola's trade secrets," said the lawsuit, which is seeking to put a stop to Fenger's career at Apple until March 2010.

Seems like Motorola is going to be busy if it decides to pursue all of its former employees heading off to rivals. This week, its ex-supply chain head Rita Lane, joins the iPhone maker. Plus, there's still ex-CTO Padmasree Warrior to consider. She moved on to Cisco ( NSDQ: CSCO), which competes with Motorola in cable set-top boxes. In the past, Motorola sued an ex-executive poached by former mobile unit head Rob Garriques, now at Dell, as well as successfully enforcing a non-compete agreement signed by ex COO Mike Zafirovski, who left to become ceo of Nortel Networks.