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Spring Design Sues Barnes & Noble Over Nook IP

Posted by kdawson on from the first-out-the-gate dept.

bth writes to let us know that Barnes & Noble has been sued by a company called Spring Design, which alleges that the recently announced Nook e-book reader infringes its intellectual property. This isn't a patent troll kind of situation; rather, the claim is misappropriation of trade secrets. Spring Design claims that they have been developing a dual-screen, Android-based e-book reader since 2006, filing patents all the while; and that they showed pretty much everything to Barnes & Noble in the expectation of working together with them to bring their reader to market.

2 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. I'm shocked! by mpapet · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm shocked I tell you! Huge company with an armada of lawyers steals everything from a startup. Next thing you know the execs at B&N will be rewarded for their cleverness.

    It's never happened before.

    --
    http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
  2. Re:order of things... by david_thornley · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There's several possible scenarios here.

    Spring: We've got this neat thing you want to see. Sign this NDA!
    B&N: We're working on something similar, but we'd like to see yours to see if we can work together (signs)
    Spring: We've got a signed NDA that covers something you're going to be producing. See you in court, suckers!

    Spring: We've got this neat thing you want to see. Sign this NDA!
    B&N: We're working on something similar, and we'd like to see yours to see if we can work together, but since we've got a project going we won't sign the NDA.
    Spring: Well, okay. This is what we've got so far.
    B&N: Ha ha! Now we've got your secrets.
    Spring: That's our work that you're going to be using.
    B&N: So sue us!

    Spring: We've got this neat thing you want to see. Sign this NDA!
    B&N: We're working on something similar, but we'd like to see yours to see if we can work together (signs)
    Spring: Now that we've got the NDA, here's what we've got so far.
    B&N: Ha ha! Now we've got your secrets, and since we have this research project going we can lie about where we got our ideas!
    Spring: We'll sue!

    All of these are plausible; it's also possible that it's a genuine misunderstanding, and Spring had reason to think B&N took things that they'd actually come up with independently.

    I'm not blaming anybody without more information.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes