Steve Jobs confronted Hand with certain fit if it objected to no-poaching pact

Former Apple organization CEO Bob Tasks confronted Hand with a certain court action if it did not enter into an contract in which the organizations promised not to seek the services of workers from each other, unsealed records show.

Jobs confronted Hand with lawsuits in 2007, according to an affidavit by former chief executive and CEO of Hand, Edward Colligan, exposed by the U.S. Region Judge for the North Region of Florida on Wednesday. The records were exposed in an antitrust court action concerning no-poaching contracts among high-tech organizations.

The launched records are part of a private antitrust fit from five former software technicians who worked at Adobe, Apple, Lucasfilm and Intuit. The former workers claim that seven technology organizations such as Apple organization, Apple, Adobe and Google conspired to remove competitors for experienced work to reduce settlement and the flexibility of workers.

In Aug 2007, Colligan obtained a contact from Tasks, who was concerned about workers that had shifted between the two organizations in the months before, Colligan had written. "On the contact, Mr. Tasks indicated concern about workers being employed away from Apple organization by Hand. As a solution, Mr. Tasks recommended an contract between Hand and Apple organization by which neither organization would seek the services of the other people's workers, such as advanced workers," he had written.

"Mr. Tasks also recommended that if Hand did not accept such an contract, Hand could face legal cases claiming violation of Apple's many patents," he said, including that he did not accept Jobs' offer and Hand ongoing to seek the services of workers from Apple organization.

Similar accusations of Apple organization harmful Hand with a certain fit over the same no-poaching offer were also brought up during 2009.

"Your offer that we consent that neither organization will seek the services of the other people's workers, regardless of the person's wishes, is not only wrong, it is likely unlawful," Colligan had written in an e-mail sent to Tasks decreasing to accept his offer. The e-mail was also launched by a legal court. Although Colligan said though he recognized that it is difficult when a well known worker simply leaves a organization for a new task, businesses can not determine where someone works.

"I can't refuse individuals who opt to engage in their income at Hand the right to do so simply because they now work for Apple organization, and I wouldn't want you to do that to current Hand workers," he had written to Tasks.

During the year before the e-mail exchange, Apple organization employed "at least" 2% of Palm's employees, Colligan said. If Hand had employed the same amount of workers from Apple organization in that period, that would have came to about 300 individuals, he said. "Instead, to my knowledge, we have only employed three."