Amazon sued a former employee who transferred to Google and asked for injunction for 18 months
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Mr. Brian Hall, who was working as vice president of product marketing at AWS, which is Amazon's cloud service, has changed to Google and has been sued by Amazon. This isn't the first time Amazon has sued an employee who has changed jobs to a rival company, but this time it is attracting attention because he was the marketing manager, not an engineer with technically sensitive information.
Amazon sues former AWS marketing VP Brian Hall after he takes Google Cloud job-GeekWire
https://www.geekwire.com/2020/amazon-sues-former-aws-marketing-vp-brian-hall-accepts-google-cloud-job/
Mr. Hall retired from Amazon at the end of March 2020 and started working as a senior product marketer at Google Cloud, Google's cloud service, from the beginning of April. Mr. Hall told Amazon's Human Resources officer on April 10 'I started working in product marketing on Google Cloud. I have restrictions to keep Amazon's information confidential and when I was working at Amazon I will not meet the customer.' Mr. Paz Patel, one of the HR officers, said, 'Congratulations. I'm very happy to hear the news,' Hall said.
But then Amazon sued Hall. Amazon argues that Hall's new role in Google Cloud would violate the non-competitive contract with Amazon, giving valuable competition information to rivals.
At a trial held on June 8, Mr. Hall's lawyer repeatedly explained that Amazon's officers repeatedly said when contracting with Mr. Hall that 'the rules regarding non-competition are only 'general' confidentiality obligations'. He claims that he believed this explanation and signed an employment contract with Amazon in 2018.
Meanwhile, Amazon is seeking an 18-month injunction against his work at Google Cloud, based on a non-competitive agreement with Mr. Hall. Hall appealed to the court that his job at Google Cloud did not require disclosure of Amazon's confidential information and that the request was absurd.
by Marco Verch
It should be noted that Mr. Hall was an executive in the marketing department, not in the engineering department involved in product technology. Mr. Hall said from Ariel Kelman, vice president of AWS world marketing at that time, 'I have never seen Amazon execute non-competitive contracts for marketing employees', this time Claimed that the lawsuit extends beyond this to protect Amazon legally.
In fact, Kelman was hired as Chief Marketing Officer for Oracle in January 2020, but has not been sued by Amazon. However, the big difference between Mr. Hall and Mr. Kelman is that Mr. Hall lives in Washington and Mr. Kelman lives in California. This is because California essentially prohibits such contracts.
Amazon was not the first to file such a lawsuit, and in 2014, when an Amazon employee transferred to Google, he filed a suit in the Washington District Court for breaching the competitive business change agreement. Washington State has also passed a law limiting non-competitive contracts in 2019, but it is possible to make an ``exception'' when the employee's income exceeds 100,000 dollars (about 10.8 million yen) annually. It has become.
Angel investor Chris DeVore commented on Washington's law that 'it does not help stop the abusive labor practices of the state's most influential employers.'
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