Microsoft files suit over employee defection

Microsoft has petitioned a US court to halt the defection of a former customer relationship management (CRM) manager to Salesforce.

The company has been granted a temporary restraining order against Michael Miszewski, a former development manager with Microsoft's online CRM and cloud computing services.

Microsoft claims that Miszewski, who was announced in January as Salesforce's senior vice president for global public sector, took the position in violation of a non-compete agreement.

"This case involves an employee with knowledge of Microsoft's sensitive customer and competitive information going to work for Salesforce, a direct competitor, in a job that is focused on the same solutions and customers," said David Howard, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for litigation at Microsoft, in a statement.

"This directly violates the confidentiality and non-competition agreements signed on beginning work with our company."

Microsoft has also accused Miszewski of defecting with confidential information related to its CRM business.

Microsoft claims in the filing that Miszewski had told the company that he was taking only personal items from his office, but took sensitive information on Microsoft's CRM marketing plans.

"Miszewski retained on his personal computer a large trove of materials, 600MB of information comprising over 900 separate files, estimated at over 25,000 pages," the company said in the filing.

"Many of these files consist of confidential and proprietary Microsoft information."

Salesforce declined to comment on the filing, citing a company policy of not commenting on pending litigation.