Motorola files suit to prevent former executive from joining Nokia

David Hartsfield, formerly of Motorola, has found himself tangled in a legal battle with his previous employer. The issue? He’s going to work for Nokia. Last week, Motorola filed an emergency motion in an Illinois district court to prevent Hartsfield from becoming Nokia’s global vice president of CDMA business. While employed at Moto, Hartsfield was the executive responsible for CDMA device development and worked on such projects as Verizon Wireless’ DROID. Motorola’s suit claims, “Hartsfield cannot erase his knowledge of Motorola’s confidential information… In working on Nokia’s CDMA mobile devices, Hartsfield could not compartmentalize his knowledge to prevent himself from using Motorola’s confidential information.” Motorola did not cite any wrongdoing or a non-compete agreement in their suit; the case has been moved to a U.S. District court.

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