The case you're talking about, I think, was that of Kai-Fu Lee, who actually was allowed to work at Google, but wasn't allowed to work in the areas he worked in at Microsoft for a year. Instead, he did general recruiting.
Ah, good point. But in that case, Microsoft still put their foot down, and it was decided in a Washington state court.
(I just did some research about this a few weeks ago. Had Google filed a case first, asking for a declaratory judgment, they likely could have gotten it handled in California courts, and the decision would have gone the other way. Seems like a rather screwy system...)
