Amazon's attempt to enforce a non-compete agreement with a former marketing executive who took a job at Google caused a splash this week in the tech industry, where the restrictive contracts are a lightning rod.

But it's not just Amazon taking heat. Critics are also taking Washington state lawmakers to task for failing to implement broader restrictions on non-compete agreements when they took up the issue last legislative session. Washington passed a law that makes it more difficult to enforce some types of non-compete agreements but set a salary threshold that doesn't protect many high-paid tech workers from litigation, including Brian Hall.

Hall left his role as vice president of product marketing for Amazon Web Services in March and took a senior product marketing job with Google Cloud in early April. Amazon sued Hall, claiming the new role violates the terms of his non-compete agreement and risks exposing valuable competitive information to one of its biggest rivals.

Amazon's <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2020/amazon-sues-former-aws-marketing-vp-brian-hall-accepts-google-cloud-job/">attempt to enforce a non-compete agreement with a former marketing executive</a> who took a job at Google caused a splash this week in the tech industry, where the restrictive contracts are a lightning rod.
But it's not just Amazon taking heat. Critics are also taking Washington state lawmakers to task for failing to implement broader restrictions on non-compete agreements when they took up the issue last legislative session. Washington passed a law that makes it more difficult to enforce some types of non-compete agreements but set a salary threshold that doesn't protect many high-paid tech workers from litigation, including Brian Hall.
Hall left his role as vice president of product marketing for Amazon Web Services in March and took a senior product marketing job with Google Cloud in early April. Amazon sued Hall, claiming the new role violates the terms of his non-compete agreement and risks exposing valuable competitive information to one of its biggest rivals.

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