The Walt Disney Company's Pixar Unit And Other Technology Companies Fail To Dismiss Staff-Poaching Lawsuit-Reuters

Reuters reported that Apple Inc, Google Inc, Intel Corp and four other technology companies were ordered by a judge to face an antitrust lawsuit claiming they illegally conspired not to poach each other's employees. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, rejected the companies' bid to dismiss claims brought under the federal Sherman antitrust law and California's own antitrust law, the Cartwright Act. In a decision on April, 18 2012 night, Koh said the existence of Do Not Cold Call agreements among various defendants supports the plausible inference that the agreements were negotiated, reached, and policed at the highest levels of the companies. The fact that all six identical bilateral agreements were reached in secrecy among seven defendants in a span of two years suggests that these agreements resulted from collusion, and not from coincidence, Koh added. Other defendants in the case included Adobe Systems Inc, Intuit Inc, Walt Disney Co's Pixar unit and Lucasfilm Ltd. Koh dismissed a claim brought under California's unfair competition law.