Cloud computing war: Former Amazon employee sued for joining Google

According to foreign media reports, Amazon is suing Zoltan Szabadi, a former strategic partnership manager at its cloud computing business AWS (Amazon Web Services), accusing his new job at Google's cloud computing platform of violating the non-compete clause he signed when he first joined Amazon.

The lawsuit is being closely watched by the U.S. high-tech industry because it will be a major test of the standard employment contracts commonly used by high-tech companies such as Amazon. Amazon and others often require employees to sign such employment contracts when they join the company to restrict their job options after leaving.

At the same time, the lawsuit also shows that the competition between Amazon and Google in the field of cloud computing is escalating.

Amazon's lawsuit states: "Szabadi was directly and fully involved in the marketing of Amazon's cloud computing business to its partners and resellers and played a significant role in developing the operating strategy and development direction of Amazon's cloud computing business. Szabadi was involved in developing, implementing and managing the strategies of many partners in Amazon's cloud computing business, and for most partners who intended to work with Amazon, he was the first point of contact."

Amazon filed the lawsuit in King County Superior Court in Seattle on June 27 to take advantage of Washington state's preference for non-compete agreements. In the state, non-compete clauses are often upheld if they are deemed reasonable. In California, where Google is headquartered, non-compete clauses have been repeatedly ruled invalid.

Amazon's lawsuit shows that Google itself has asked Szabadi to agree not to solicit business from his clients while working at Amazon within six months of joining Google, and not to poach Amazon employees during that period.

But Amazon said Google's restrictions on Szabadi did not comply with the non-compete, non-solicitation and trade secret restrictions in Szabadi's employment contract with Amazon.

The Szabadi case is similar to a lawsuit Amazon filed in 2012 against Daniel Powers, a former vice president of its cloud computing business who joined Google as head of sales for its cloud platform. That lawsuit was appealed to federal court in Seattle, where a judge refused to uphold an overly broad provision in Amazon's non-compete agreement.

While the two lawsuits are largely similar, Amazon slightly adjusted the second lawsuit's claims based on the judge's ruling on the first case to test the law's restrictions on non-compete agreements.

In the first lawsuit, for example, Amazon sought to ask the court to bar Pavos from "engaging in any activity that directly or indirectly supports any aspect of Google's cloud computing business that competes with Amazon's cloud computing business" for 18 months after leaving the company. A federal judge later ruled that request was too broad, but he did say Amazon had the right to bar Pavos from engaging directly with Amazon's customers for nine months after leaving.

In its lawsuit against Szabadi, Amazon wants the court to issue a more specific injunction prohibiting Szabadi from providing any direct or indirect support for any activities related to Google's cloud computing business with partners or distributors.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.