Motorola Loses Top Exec To Nokia; Asks U.S. Courts To Intervene

Motorola's Booth at CES 2010

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), Nokia and Research In Motion are all involved in lawsuits, so why not Motorola (NYSE: MOT), too?

Motorola is asking for a temporary restraining order against David Hartsfield, who left the handset maker in December for Nokia (NYSE: NOK). The Chicago Tribune reports that Hartsfield left Motorola to become VP of Nokia’s global CDMA business. In a filing in Cook County Circuit Court, Motorola claims that the move violated “various agreements,” and that Motorola risked losing competitive information about CDMA strategy and marketing to Nokia. Hartsfield’s new job “inevitably will require him to use and/or disclose Motorola’s trade secret information.”

Sounds a lot like a similar case that was dismissed last year after Motorola filed a suit against Michael Fenger after he left for a position at Apple.

In a statement, Motorola said that it is suing Hartsfield for breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets and that it is “also seeking expedited discovery and preliminary injunction for further restrictions and damages.” In a filing, Hartsfield’s attorney called the accusations “grossly inadequate.” The attorney argued that there’s no threat to Hartsfield sharing sensitive information with Nokia because CDMA is an industry standard, not “secret proprietary information.” The response also said the alleged non-compete clauses referenced by the company were buried in documentation about Hartsfield’s stock options.

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