Engadget have some really interesting news – Spring Design, the makers of the Alex eReader have sued Barnes & Noble and it seems like B&N might be guilty.
The news first broke on BusinessWire (which is a Berkshire Hathaway company). They write -
“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 first developed and began filing patents on its Alex e-book, an innovative dual screen, Android-based e-book back in 2006. Since the beginning of 2009 Spring and Barnes & Noble worked within a non-disclosure agreement, including many meetings, emails and conference calls with executives ranging up to the president of Barnes and Noble.com, discussing confidential information regarding the features, functionality and capabilities of Alex.
Throughout, Barnes & Noble’s marketing and technical executives extolled Alex’s “innovative” features, never mentioning their use of those features until the public disclosure of the Nook.
If Barnes & Noble really were talking throughout 2009, then there can be little doubt a Court might well feel the similarities in design warrant an injunction on Nook sales.
Take a look at the devices and the similarities seem too numerous for it to be a coincidence -
- 6″ eInk screen above a 3.5″ touchscreen.
- Almost identical placement of screens and page turn buttons and the ‘Read/Nook’ button in the centre.
- Android OS.
Here’s the picture -
Alex and Nook are rather similar
What happens Next?
Three possibilities -
- Spring Design lose.
- B&N lose and are forced to pay royalties to Spring Design.
- B&N lose and are forced to stop selling Nooks.
The benefit of the free publicity is overshadowed by the uncertainty and the fact that B&N might be forced to stop selling Nooks.
An early Christmas present from Spring Design to Amazon.
Did Nook really steal from Spring Design?
Who knows. Anything is possible.
- Spring Design might just be taking advantage of some talks they had.
- Barnes & Noble might have copied just the two screen layout and thought it wasn’t a big deal.
- B&N might have gotten ‘inspiration’ from Alex.
A judge and jury and high-priced lawyers are going to help decide so it probably doesn’t even matter who is right.
Will keep you updated as more news and details emerge.
Filed under: Barnes Noble Nook | Tagged: nook roadblock
You wrote: “The news first broke on BusinessWire (which is a Berkshire Hathaway company). They write ….”
BusinessWire is a PR distribution service, not an independent news organization. They don’t really “write” anything; rather, they send out press releases on behalf of anyone who pays for the service. What you have quoted from at length in the yellow box is in fact the press release issued by Spring Design, not a journalist’s recitation of facts. As such, it is a highly biased source of information that repeats Spring Design’s legal allegations but does not verify them.
fair enough. It’s for the courts to decide whether the allegations are valid.
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