I suppose we should have seen this coming. A major retailer leaks innovative images of an upcoming Ebook Reader, an unknown outsider announces a very similar innovation in a similar project right before the major retailer has a big splashy event rolling out the Reader. You don’t have to be John Grisham to write what happens next…a lawsuit.

Spring Design has decided that the Barnes & Noble Nook (on the right) looks just a little bit too much like their Alex (on the left), an Android based dual screen Ebook Reader, especially as according to Spring they have had the key concepts patented for a while and have been spending the better part of the year trying to flog the Alex to B&N. Personally I think there are plenty of differences between the two projects, but if Spring really had been spilling their guts (and secrets) in Barnes and Noble conferences rooms…then yeah, Spring has a case.

See more of this story after the jump.

Here is the core of Spring’s legal argument against Barnes and Noble…

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 Spring does have the patents (why claim it if they didn’t), and did carry on these meetings with B&N under an NDA (easily proven by travel records alone) then it strikes me that the book retailer has a lot of ‘splaining to do. I for one would love to know how the leak timetable worked…did the appearance of rumored pictures of a Barnes and Noble dual screen reader take Spring totally by surprise? Bet that was a fun office that morning. Did they rush their own announcement rather than wait to find a partner to brand the device (as they apparently wanted B&N to do)? Where does Plastic Logic, who were rumored to be the design company behind the B&N device, fit into all this, if at all?

The lawsuit apparently does not mention trying to actually stop B&N from selling the Nook, so I would expect that Spring is looking to get paid…and from the look of things B&N would be smart to write them a check, as early as possible so as not to spoil the Nook rollout.

ERRATA Ina Fried is now reporting that the actual suit DOES seek to block sale of the Nook, asking for “preliminary and permanent injunctive relief… restraining and enjoining B&N from use or disclosure of Spring’s confidential information or trade secrets, including the sale of the Nook.” I still expect this to be settled with money, but Spring is talking tough in their opening position.

Three weeks or so till the end of the month when the Nook is supposed to hit stores, and it is already the best selling item of all time in B&N’s online store. The clock is ticking.

Tick, tick, tick…

I LOVE a good legal potboiler.

Zealot (473 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

By day a department manager and writer for a major network device vendor...by night Zealot stalks the mean magnetic streets, striking fear into the hearts of bandwidth abusers and theme park mascots. Zealot has been involved with mobile devices for more than a decade now, starting off with dumb phones, moving to PDAs and then to smartphones, notebooks and netbooks with the odd PMP thrown in. Most of his mobile time currently is spent on a Treo Pro, Zune HD, Thinkpad T61, Gigabyte M912M or a Hackintoshed Compaq Mini 704. He proudly groks the Geek community and considers himself a Neo Maxi Zune Dweebie (thanks Will Wheaton!).