Barnes & Noble Nook Accused of IP Violation
Opsie! What’s this? It looks like Barnes & Noble’s Nook ereader is not a noble idea after all. Spring Design makers of the Alex ebook reader which launched in 2006 is accusing B&N of
“misappropriated trade secrets and violated the parties’ non-disclosure agreement when it copied Alex’ features into its recently announced Nook e-book”
According to Spring Design VP of Slaes and Marketing, Eric Kmiec Spring Design had to take action to protect its IP Rights.
“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 Mr. Kmiec.
Spring Design first developed and began filing patents on its Alex e-book reader which among all things will have a dual screen and will be running on Android. In 2009, they started working with B&N on a non-disclosure agreement regarding confidential information about the features, functionality and capabilities of Alex.
Did Barnes & Noble copied Spring Design’s Alex e-book reader? We’ ll see how B&N will react to this. It’s not a good publicity for their upcoming Nook which is touted as one of the most anticipated e-reader right now.
via Business Wire
Barnes & Noble Nook Accused of IP Violation
