Microsoft is suing Google to stop one of its top engineers from going to work for Google.

Kai-Fu Lee was in charge of Microsoft’s research and development center in Beijing before going to work at the company’s head office in Redmond, Washington, in the United States.

However, on Tuesday Google named Mr. Lee president of its operation in China as well as the head of its planned research and development center in China.

In reaction, Microsoft announced that it had filed suit against both Mr. Lee and Google in order to force him to keep non-competition and confidentiality contracts he had signed with Microsoft.

The agreement, like those signed by all Microsoft employees, would prevent Mr. Lee from going to work for a direct competitor for a year after leaving Microsoft, from hiring anyone away from Microsoft, and from disclosing Microsoft’s trade secrets.

One of Microsoft’s lawyers said that it sometimes negotiated agreements with departing employees to allow them to go to other companies in positions not overlapping what they had done with Microsoft, but that Mr. Lee had not applied for such an agreement before accepting the position with Google.

Further, Microsoft claimed that Mr. Lee had accepted the position with Google in “egregious violation” of his contract with Microsoft. Google said that they had reviewed all of Microsoft’s claims and that they were without merit and that they support Dr. Lee and will fight Microsoft’s claims.