That Monday morning Apple brainstorming session about the next iPod might have to wait.

A U.S. District court has ordered an Apple employee recently hired away from IBM to immediately stop work amidst fear that he might disclose IBM trade secrets.

Mark Papermaster "will immediately cease his employment with Apple Inc. until further order of this court," according to a Friday ruling from the U.S. District Court for Southern New York.

Apple announced Tuesday that Papermaster was hired as its new senior vice president of devices hardware engineering, replacing iPod innovator Tony Fadell.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but will reportedly honor the judge's order.

Papermaster is a 26-year veteran of IBM and most recently served as vice president of IBM's blade development unit, which designs IBM's blade-model servers. In June 2006, Papermaster signed a non-compete agreement in which he agreed not to work for an IBM competitor for at least a year if he ever left IBM, according to court documents.

He informed IBM of the Apple job offer last month. On October 20, IBM offered him a pay raise as well as the option to accept one year's salary if he promised not to go to a competitor, but Papermaster submitted his resignation the next day.

On October 22, IBM filed suit, claiming Papermaster is privy to many an IBM trade secret. Papermaster claims that IBM and Apple are not competitors.

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