A California court declined a temporary restraining order to bar a dozen Yahoo engineers from working on interactive speech technology that their former employer says it owns.
In its lawsuit filed against Yahoo last week, Menlo Park, Calif.-based Nuance Communications had requested the temporary restraining order and accused Yahoo of unfair competition and stealing trade secrets. Yahoo, the suit claims, "gutted" Nuance's research and development unit, and hired away 13 of its engineers.
The order, issued Monday in Santa Clara County, said the court was unable to properly assess whether any wrongdoing had occurred and therefore declined to grant Nuance's request for a temporary restraining order against Yahoo and the engineers. A hearing was scheduled for Nov. 14.
"We are pleased with the result today--that the court did not grant the request for a temporary restraining order," Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo said in a statement. "We continue to believe the allegations in the lawsuit are without merit, and we plan to continue a vigorous defense."
Representatives of Nuance, which makes the technology behind many airlines' interactive, automated-voice flight information systems, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Yahoo is not the only search engine accused of poaching employees from other tech firms. Its main rival, Google, was sued by Microsoft over the hiring of former Microsoft executive Kai-Fu Lee, arguing that his setting up Google's China development center would violate a noncompete agreement he signed with Microsoft.
Chamtech's spray-on antenna uses a nano material to provide a low-power boost to antenna range. The wireless-in-a-can product may some day bring an end to unsightly cell towers.
Whether Apple will release a new iPad next month doesn't seem to be the question as much as what day it will happen. A new rumor has it down to the day.
Tommy Jordan, the man who shot his daughter's laptop for YouTube, gets a visit from police and child protection services. Oh, and Good Morning America.
Along with green-lighting Google's buy of Motorola, the Justice Department today OKs an Apple-Microsoft-RIM partnership deal to buy Nortel patents, and Apple's plan to acquire Novell patents.
EnerG2 opens a plant to make an engineered carbon that will improve performance of energy storage devices and make storage for start-stop hybrid cars less expensive.
"Never Stop Playing" campaign for upcoming portable marks Sony's largest platform launch marketing spend, with ads to reach YouTube, Facebook, TV, and billboards in major cities.
As UC Berkeley students, the co-founders of "Back to the Roots" discovered they could grow mushrooms using recycled coffee grounds. Now their mushroom kit sells at grocery stores across the country.
Join the conversation