<A HREF="http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-208010.html?tag=nl.e550">Google was named in a trade secrets lawsuit</A> alleging that the company's business software unit copied a tiny start-up's tool for moving customers off of Microsoft software onto Google's.

LimitNone filed a complaint in an Illinois circuit court alleging that Google at first began promoting the smaller firm's tool for migrating Microsoft Outlook customers to Gmail, then copied the idea and went into competition with it.

The lawsuit was brought by the commercial litigation firm of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP--by the same team who previously faced off with Google in a trademark case involving the Silicon Valley company's highly successful online advertising system.