Research in Motion has decided to bring Motorola to court as they claim that Motorola have disallowed employees that were recently made unemployed to apply for jobs with Motorola’s competitors.

The lawsuit filed by Research in Motion claims that Motorola refused to allow their former employees to work with the Blackberry maker, however the suit follows an agreement signed by both companies highlighting the fact that neither company would be allowed to hire each others employees.

Research in Motion however are arguing that the contract brought together in February expired in August and is claiming that they are legally allowed to employ the former Motorola staff if they so desire.

In the lawsuit, Research in Motion were quoted as saying, “RIM entities continue to grow and hire new employees within the United States and globally against a backdrop of recent public announcements by Motorola that it has and will continue to make massive layoffs.”

Motorola have recently been seen struggling in the market and have been in a position where they have had to cut back on employees and have recently lost $2.8 billion through their handset sector in the last 24 months.

However, the CEO of Motorola, Sanjay Jha, went on the defensive in a statement, saying, “The sustained downturn in the global economy requires that we take these difficult but necessary steps.� While serving our customers remains a top priority, we are equally focused on our cost structure, and we will continue to implement appropriate measures to conserve cash and reduce expenses.”

However, Research in Motion has attacked Motorola in their complaint, stating,� “Motorola’s position shamelessly ignores the fact that Motorola’s massive layoffs, and not the RIM entities, have caused hundreds of Motorola employees to date to seek employment with the RIM entities.”

The complaint then goes on to explain how Motorola’s stance on the matter is stopping Research in Motion “from hiring any Motorola employees, including the thousands of employees Motorola has already fired or will soon fire, without regard for [RIM's] rights or for the damage this tactic will unfairly inflict on Motorola’s own employees and ex-employees who will be prevented from finding new employment.”

The lawsuit also went on to the offensive, claiming that Research in Motion is continuing to grow while Motorola is continuing to lay off more and more employees.� “RIM entities continue to grow and hire new employees within the United States and globally against a backdrop of recent public announcements by Motorola that it has and will continue to make massive layoffs,” claimed the lawsuit.

Recently, Motorola announced that they are planning on laying off a further 400 employees after previously announcing that 1,500 employees would be made unemployed in October.� However, having employees moving from one company to another in such a way brings up quite a lot of issues, such as non-disclosure agreements put in place, however it is only fair to have these technical employees in positions that are currently vacant, no matter who they are for.