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SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) - A federal judge has rebuffed Google Inc.'s attempt to remove court-ordered restrictions limiting its employment of prized computer scientist Kai-Fu Lee, whose recent defection from Microsoft Corp. exposed the escalating tensions between two of the world's best-known companies.
In a ruling late Thursday, U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte declined to become involved in the legal battle over Lee until next year's completion of a Washington state trial on the validity of a noncompete agreement Lee signed when he joined Microsoft in 2000.
Whyte's stay of the San Jose, Calif. lawsuit filed by Google finalizes a tentative ruling he issued two weeks ago in a case pitting the Internet's search engine leader against the world's largest software maker.
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