Judge bars executive from working at Apple

Apple Inc.’s new executive in charge of the iPod and the iPhone must stop work immediately because he may have violated an agreement with former employer IBM Corp., a judge ruled.

The executive, Mark Papermaster, left for Apple last month. IBM sued him, saying the move violated a contract in which he agreed not to work for a competitor within a year of leaving his job.

Papermaster “will immediately cease his employment with Apple Inc. until further order,” U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas in White Plains, N.Y., said in an order issued after markets closed.