That's lame. You can not expect someone to forget all they have learned because they left your company.

Shouldn't they sue Fenger then?

If an employee signs a non-compete agreement and then immediately leaves to work for a competing company in a similar role, then yes, the previous employer can sue that employee, and if the current employer obtained protected trade secrets from the employee then they can also be sued.

Put it this way - an employee of Coca Cola gets ticked off and sends someone at Pepsi information on pricing or the recipe for one of the drinks. These things are trade secrets and Pepsi knows it. Pepsi cannot use this information in any way. In fact, they must immediately disclose to Coke and law enforcement that they have received the information and what reasonable steps they have taken to remove it so they cannot use it. If they don't and Coke finds out about the breach, they can sue both the employee and Pepsi for using the information.

I'm pretty sure that non-compete clauses are unlawful and unenforceable in California.

As long as Fenger is working in California, the Non-Compete is not valid as per state law.

"`He was privy to the pricing, margins, customer initiatives, allocation of resources, product development, multiyear product, business and talent planning and strategies being used by Motorola,''

If knowing that makes Apple's iPhone business a success, then should Motorola be doing gangbusters?! Moto are you sure the success enjoyed isn't because of the phone??? I'm not sure, but I think that had a little something to do with it!

Apple partnered with Moto - and the result was failure. Moto demonstrated that they didn't understand how to adapt new ideas and technology, just how to stock old distribution lines with junk. It would appear to me that Fenger has learnt more from apple on how to achieve success than apple from Moto! Of course, Moto in this case is reacting like any cornered beast - lash out because there is nothing to lose and corporate death (in the phone market) may be close.

 Here in Canada it's normal for high profile companies to have their employees sign Non-Disclosure agreements while working for the company or in some cases to not leak internal company information for at least 1 year. For any company to say that you can't work for the competition once you have terminated your employment should be unlawful. 

I have both non-compete and non-disclosure agreements with my current employer and I have negotiated them several times over the last few years. Executives are by definition privy very sensitive information which will be used (even if unintentionally) to influence decisions at their new employer. I asked for and got a clause stating that if I leave my current employer and they want to bench me for a year then they have to pay me for it. Executives have to think these things through up front. If you work in a specialized niche and you may not be able to work for a couple years thanks to your non-compete you should negotiate for compensation for that.

Far more insidious is what is going on right now with using trade secret law to prohibit people from using common knowledge at their new employers.

I have been using the touch screen Motorola A925 3G smartphone since 2003 when it was first launched by Hutchison Hong Kong, same company that is selling the Apple iPhone 3G.

The Motorola A925, and A1000 were very successful mobile phone until Motorola discontinuous its latest model A1010 full touch screen version of 3G, GPS and web browsing mobile phone and change to Razer model.

Today Apple launch the iPhone 3G that become the most advance smartphone worldwide and Motorola sues Apple? Motorola should look back five years ago what they had done?

If Motorola maintained the A1010 3G model, they would have been the most leading smartphone company by now. Why they stop production of the A1010 and change to Razer was a very big mistake decision.

An NDL is an NDL. The guy isn't supposed to go to work for a competing company for x number of years.. that's fairly standard stuff, I'm under one of those in my current contract.

But it made me wonder if this is the guy who helped roll out iPhone's horrific 2nd gen launch on July 11. Motorola might not want the guy back.