Kai-Fu Lee (yahoo photo)

A state judge, ruling in a case that exposed the behind-the-scenes animosity between two high-tech titans, said Tuesday that a former Microsoft Corp. executive will be able to help Google set up a research and development facility in China in the coming months.

King County Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez is still barring Kai-Fu Lee from doing work on products, services or projects he worked on at Microsoft, including computer search technology. But while the judge said that a noncompete agreement Lee signed with Microsoft is valid, he said recruiting and staffing a Google center in China would not violate that agreement.

Microsoft sued Lee and Google soon after, contending that Lee's job at Google would violate the terms of a noncompete agreement, which prohibits him from doing similar work for a rival for a year. Microsoft also accused Lee of using insider information to get his job at Mountain View, Calif.-based Google.

The case has illuminated the behind-the-scenes bitterness between Microsoft and Google, which is emerging as a formidable competitor to the Redmond software giant.

Google said it hired Lee to have him create an engineering office in China, but Lee is also an expert in computer recognition of language ¡ª an important field for search engines such as Google.

The judge also chided Lee for ¡°assisting Google¡± while he was still a Microsoft employee. ¡°Dr. Lee confused the difference between the discretion given to him to disclose Microsoft¡¯s confidential information for the benefit of Microsoft and disclosing Microsoft¡¯s confidential information for his own benefit or the benefit of another,¡± the judge wrote.

Editor: Yan