Judge: Papermaster's first day at Apple delayed

Updated at 4:55 p.m. PST with comment from Apple.

A judge has granted IBM's preliminary injunction aimed at preventing former executive Mark Papermaster from reporting for duty as Apple's new iPhone leader.

Apple hired Papermaster as the new head of iPhone and iPod development earlier this month, but IBM sued Papermaster last week claiming he is violating the terms of a noncompete agreement with IBM in accepting the job at Apple. U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Karas ordered Papermaster on Friday to "immediately cease his employment with Apple Inc. until further order of this court," according to a filing made public Friday afternoon.

Papermaster had attempted to claim that since he will be heading up Apple's mobile computing division, his role is not one that conflicts directly with IBM's businesses. But something convinced Judge Karas otherwise, although he declined to elaborate, citing "reasons that will be stated in a forthcoming opinion."

An IBM representative was cheered by the outcome, as you might expect. "We are pleased that Judge Karas agreed to our request for a preliminary injunction. Mr. Papermaster's employment by Apple is a violation of his agreement with IBM against working for a competitor should he leave IBM," the company said in a statement.

Apple likewise remained upbeat. "We will comply with the court's order, but are confident that Mark Papermaster will be able to ultimately join Apple when this dust settles," it said in a statement. A representative for Papermaster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Judge Karas scheduled a status conference for November 18th "at which it will discuss, and encourages the parties to discuss beforehand, an expedited schedule for discovery and trial."

[AppleSuxLeo]

I`d be impressed if his last name was Siliconmaster. He sounds like a Papertiger.

[beej32]

Ok let's go over the product lineup:

Consumer Products:
-Apple Mac Pro = IBM ??
-Apple Mac Book = IBM ?? (oh wait, they sold that division to Lenovo, darn!)
-Apple iPod = IBM ??
-Apple iPhone = IBM ??

Now wait a second, are you just excited about your new Mac Server?!
-IBM e,p,x,z server = Apple ?? (nope guess they dont make servers)
-IBM blade server = Apple ?? (I just can't keep track of all the people folding proteins at the airport on such a thin computer)
-IBM...hmm i think i finished the product lineup.

If IBM didn't sell their CONSUMER division a few years back, then maybe i could see an argument. But IBM changed scope of their company to focus on Businesses in order to avoid becoming the next Digital or Yahoo*cough* (for those too young Digital was one of the largest companies in the world but died because it did not evolve with the consumer). To put it short IBM evolved itself away from the consumer market because it was losing and switched to business support. Claiming that Apple is a "competetor" in a market it doesn't even exist is just complete B.S. and either the judge has been paid off or is ignorant of the facts.

[bmeson]

IBM knows that the stakes are very very high. This man will carry away with him technological secrets that are being heavily used in the world's fastest supercomputers. Apple will develop a chip multi-processor design that will directly compete with the Cell BE. IBM silicon is superior to Intel and AMD, that's why they do most of the computational heavy lifting in the government lab machines.

Steve Jobs doesn't want X86, he wants POWER.

[WrongSizeGlass]

Apple + PA Semi = PPC Competition
Papermaster = IBM Chip Guru

It's not a stretch that a judge will see the potential overlap between IBM's consumer line of PPC's and Apple's PA Semi acquisition.

[bmeson]

It is very interesting how Apple flops on exactly where the P.A. Semi group's effort is targeted. It is very interesting to hear that Tony Fadell is not leaving Apple, he is just stepping aside to give the Big Blue man room to fit until his true calling gets exposed.

IBM would not give Steve what he wanted, so now he's going to take it from them. ALL of Apple's future product lines will be powered by the new chips they are currently designing behind locked doors.

What's next ? Apple makes an attempt to buyout Motorola or Freescale?

[anakin2006]

"Apple makes an attempt to buyout Motorola or Freescale?"

possible. doing a standalone CPU for apple is not that hard. just think about the volume of chips apple used each year on its products. also apple was the original powerpc alliance, right?

[kool_skatkat]

Apple doesn't sell parts... so if apple makes a better PPC for itself, how does it compete with IBM. If apple developed a better ARM, would it sell it to anybody? No.

Sour grapes that Apple went with Intel. Let's see...