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李開復博士英文自傳全書（連載【90】）

荷承  李開復博士俯允將英文自傳全書，交由本報刊出，特申謝忱！並祈在台北就醫之李開復博士，早日戰勝癌魔！    

法奶日報發行人盧立人拜啓2013.09. 25. 台北.

On July 19, 2005, the announcement instantly became headline news and cover stories in the United States and China.

Bing-Lin Gu, president of China’s Tsing-Hua University, also appeared in the news in China with his strong support for the Google announcement. He said, “Dr. Kai-Fu Lee possesses the perfect combination of technical brilliance, leadership excellence, and business savvy, and he cares deeply about the students and education in China. Dr. Lee is the ideal candidate to do great things for Google and for China." 

Only minutes later, the Microsoft version of the story spread through the Internet as quickly as virus. Headlines such as “Microsoft Accuses Lee of Violating Non-compete Agreement” and “Microsoft Takes Lee to Court in Washington” appear everywhere. Those articles were questioning my loyalty.

Microsoft told the media that I “resigned out of the blue.” But what happened was Microsoft sued me out of the blue. The fact that they filed the lawsuit before I resigned made me wonder if their intention was to buy time for preparing the lawsuit when they made offers to keep me. A friend of mine working for Microsoft later confirmed my speculations.

“Microsoft was indeed getting ready to sue you when they asked you to stay,” he said. “They made me and some other people friendly to you leave after a meeting that discussed how to keep you, and then they would have another meeting to brainstorm about how to sue you.”

However, this episode was not in the news. People only knew two high-tech giant companies were fighting over an executive. The high profile lawsuit turned my private decision of a job change into a public affair.

I was shocked to see headlines such as “Microsoft Says Lee Planned to Jump Ship Long Ago,” “Microsoft and Google Fighting for China Market,” and “How Much Did Google Offer Lee?”

Tom Burt on the Microsoft legal team told the New York Times that I held trade secrets pertaining Microsoft’s search technology and China business strategy, which would prevent me from working for Google China based on my non-compete agreement with Microsoft.

“It’s a very egregious violation of his non-compete agreement,” said Burt of my new position with Google.

In the meantime, Google fought back, stating that the company had reviewed the Microsoft claims and found them “completely without merit.” A Google spokesperson said,  “We're thrilled to have Dr. Lee on board at Google and we will defend vigorously against these merit-less claims.”

As the fight went on, more and more fingers were pointed at me.

Some speculated whether I had been involved with Microsoft’s core business secrets, especially in search. Some did not realize the limited scope of the non-compete, and criticized me for breaching the agreement. These completely false accusations bothered me as I worried about their possible impact.

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【法奶日報www.lulijen.com–2014.4.9.刊出，第9-1118】