Barnes & Noble sued over e-reader

Jake Widman
Wednesday, 04 November 2009 04:22

Your IT - Mobility

Spring Design, developers of a dual-screen e-book reader called Alex, has filed suit against Barnes & Noble, alleging that B&N's new Nook reader uses Spring's trade secrets and violates the companies' non-disclosure agreement.

Spring claims to have been developing and filing patents on its Alex since 2006, the year of the company's founding. Alex, which Spring plans to have out by the end of this year, is a dual-screen, Android-based e-book reader.

Starting last spring, says Spring, the company has been holding discussions with Barnes & Noble in which (under a non-disclosure agreement) it shared confidential information about its device.

"We showed the Alex e-book design to Barnes & Noble in good faith with the intention of working together to provide a superior dual screen e-book to the market," said Spring Design vice president Eric Kmiec.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, Barnes & Noble introduced its own dual-screen, Android-based e-book reader, dubbed the Nook. Rumors about the Nook were circulating before the announcement, and a Spring spokesperson told iTWire that her company was "frankly surprised" by the rumors of such a similar device.



The Nook is sufficiently similar to the Alex that Spring has charged Barnes & Noble with copying the Alex's features in violation of the companies' agreement. "Spring Design unfortunately had to take the appropriate action to protect its intellectual property rights," said Kmiec.

The suit, filed in California Northern U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, seeks damages and injunctive relief. Barnes & Noble declined to comment.