Barnes & Noble sued over alleged ereader IP violations

Ereader solutions and products developer Spring Design has filed a lawsuit asserting bookseller giant Barnes & Noble misappropriated trade secrets and violated the firms' non-disclosure agreement in developing its forthcoming Android-powered nook ereader device. According to Spring Design, it began developing and filing patents on its own Android-based ereader, dubbed Alex, in 2006--in the spring of 2009, the company inked an NDA with Barnes & Noble, discussing confidential information regarding the device's features, functionality and capabilities across the span of multiple meetings, conference calls and emails. Spring Design claims B&N never mentioned plans to incorporate Alex's features into the nook until its public announcement of the device.

"Spring Design unfortunately had to take the appropriate action to protect its intellectual property rights," said the company's vice president of sales and marketing Eric Kmiec in a prepared statement. "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."

For more on the Spring Design suit:
- read this release

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