Reuters:

Attorneys for a former Apple Inc executive on Tuesday will try to convince a skeptical judge of a core tenet of tech startup culture – that employees can plan a competing venture while still in a job.

Apple’s lawsuit against a former chip executive-turned-rival will have implications for employees all over California who are considering striking out on their own and creating the startups that drive tech business and culture.

Judge Mark H. Pierce last week issued a tentative ruling allowing the case to proceed but wrote wrote that “an employee is not permitted to plan and prepare to create a competitive enterprise prior to termination if the employee does so on their employer’s time and with the employer’s resources.”

This is an interesting case because, on the face of it, you’d think Apple is entirely in the right in saying that an employee can’t spend time “planning his new startup while on company time at Apple, spending hours on the phone with colleagues who eventually joined the venture.”