As it became known Friday, IBM Corporation is bringing an action in a New York State court against Joanne Olsen, former services division general manager of the company.  

31-year Olsen left IMB to join Oracle by Larry Ellison after the purchase of Sun Microsystems - which put the two firms in more direct competition.

According to Corp’s complaint, Olsen was contractually obliged to take gardening leave - not work for a competing company - for at least a year.

Consequently, she cannot undertake a senior position at Oracle without violating her obligations to IBM as she possesses valuable confidential information about IBM. However, she does.