Barnes & Noble Sued Over Nook eBook Reader

It didn't seem long ago when Barnes & Noble was generating much hoopla following its launch party for the Nook eBook reader. But a recent lawsuit from another eBook maker could scuttle the debut of Barnes & Noble's fledgling Kindle rival.

Spring Design, the maker of the "Alex" eReader, alleges that Barnes & Noble "misappropriated trade secrets" and" violated the parties' non-disclosure agreement" by copying features of the Alex eBook into the Nook. The recent announcement of the Nook's features apparently caught Spring Design by surprise according to a statement that was e-mailed by the company.

In the statement, Spring Design states that the company has been meeting regularly with B&N executives since the beginning of 2009 to discuss the features, functionality and capabilities of the Android-powered Alex reader. Spring Design claims that B&N praised the Alex's features as "innovative" but never mentioned that they were using the very same features in the Nook. The dual-screen Alex has been in development since 2006.

"Spring Design unfortunately had to take the appropriate action to protect its intellectual property rights," said Eric Kmiec, Spring Design Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "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."

Spring Design also indicated that it hopes to resolve the issue soon and move forward from the ordeal. The company has been aiming to work closely with book store partners as a way to market its device &mdash one reason it approached B&N in the first place.

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