Another lawsuit launched by IBM against its employee for joining Dell

A leading computer technologies manufacturer IBM launched the second lawsuit of the kind against its another employee that joined a rival company. According to the reports the company is suing David Johnson who occupied a position of mergers-and-acquisitions chief and worked with IBM for 27 years, to prevent him from joining Dell, the world's joint second largest provider of PCs.

IBM claims that Johnson’s new work at Dell is violating an agreement that restricts his employment with rivals. The company said Johnson was in possession of "valuable confidential information" that prevents him from undertaking a senior strategy position at Dell. Dell, in turn, dismissed "characterizations" of his role at the company as speculative, adding it respects the trade secrets and intellectual property of others."

The similar suit was previously launched in November 2008 against Mark Papermaster who'd joined Apple as head of iPod and iPhone engineering. He served in a variety of roles at IBM during 25 years, and worked on IBM's BladeCenter server line and Power microprocessor architecture and technology. The suit was settled in January, with the companies agreeing Papermaster "shall not use or disclose any IBM confidential information."