When Apple hired away Mark Papermaster from IBM as its new senior vice president of hardware engineering for devices, IBM struck back with a lawsuit attempting to bar him from switching jobs. Citing his non-compete clause, IBM convinced a judge to order Papermaster to stop working at Apple until the dispute was resolved. IBM even brought Papermaster’s children into it.
Well, now he can finally go make future iPhones and iPods for Apple. The two companies have settled out of court. It kind of makes you wonder why companies even bother with non-compete clauses in employment contracts, especially when they are overly broad. More often than not, they are not worth the paper they are written on.