A federal court judge on Friday granted a preliminary injunction requested by IBM that ordered Mark Papermaster to cease working for Apple until further notice.
Apple announced on Tuesday this week that Papermaster would be joining the company immediately in his new role as the head of the engineering teams that make the iPods and iPhones, reporting directly to CEO Steve Jobs. After Friday’s ruling by the court in the southern district of New York, Apple said Papermaster would comply with the court’s order.
“We will comply with the court’s order but are confident that Mark Papermaster will be able to ultimately join Apple when the dust settles,” Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said.
Kenneth Karas, the U.S. District Court judge in White Plains, New York, where the case was filed, didn’t immediately explain his ruling, saying he would release a full opinion in the future. He scheduled a follow-up meeting for November 18 to map out a time line for the case.
The suit grew out of Papermaster’s 26 year employment at IBM, where he was responsible for many of that company’s innovations in the development of silicon chip processor technology. He signed an agreement not to compete in similar employment with another company for one year, but quit abruptly on October 24th and planned to start at Apple this week.
Via Reuters, Trading Markets
