Papermaster

Papermaster p.1

David Brose

BU400-02

November 16, 2010

Unit 5 Assignment

Papermaster p.2

Mark Papermaster was V.P. of IBM’s blade server division, working for IBM from 1982 until 2008. Papermaster took a position with Apple, replacing Tony Faddell who was responsible for the team that created the iPod. Papermaster was sued by IBM for violating a non-compete agreement.

Papermaster was selected to join the Integration & Values Team, a group consisting of approximately 300 top IBM executives who had access to confidential information not available to most of the company's employees. He served on the Technical Leadership Team as well, a group of top technical leaders in the company who focused on expanding and attracting talent to the company's workforce. Like the Integration & Values Team, the Technical Leadership Team also had access to highly confidential information.

The sensitive nature of the information to which Papermaster had gained access to caused IBM to have Papermaster sign a Noncompetition Agreement in June of 2006 in order to be considered for Integration & Values Team membership. The agreement stated that upon separation, for a period of one year, Papemaster could not associate with any competitor of IBM. The non-compete went on to define the terms of geographic location limitations where Papermaster worked in the previous 12 months; “Associate with" as becoming an employee, associate, member, etc.; and "Competitor" as an "entity" that competes with any Business Unit in which Papermaster worked in the previous two years. The agreement also stated that any violation of this agreement would cause harm to IBM, a factor the company suing an employee over a non-compete agreement usually has the burden to prove.

Papermaster p.3

IBM filed a complaint against Papermaster with United States District Court in the Southern District of New York. IBM stated Papermaster had committed a breach of contract and was sharing trade...