Judge OKs class-action suit against Apple, Intel, Google, Adobe 

By Steve Johnson

[email protected]

SAN JOSE — More than 60,000 tech workers can seek monetary damages from Apple (AAPL), Intel (INTC), Google (GOOG) and Adobe Systems (ADBE) because of a federal judge's ruling in a suit claiming that former Apple CEO Steve Jobs conspired with other local executives to limit the workers' pay by barring them from moving from one company to another.

In granting class-action status to the suit Thursday, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose cited [PDF] what she termed "considerable, compelling common proof" that the Silicon Valley companies engaged in antitrust behavior by agreeing not to try to lure away each others' employees.