Archive for the ‘spring design vs barnes and noble’ tag
Barnes & Noble settles lawsuit with Spring Design no comments
You may recall that Spring Design, makers of the Alex ereader, filed a lawsuit against Barnes & Noble in November of 2009, right after the original Nook ereader was launched. Spring Design alleged that B&N violated an NDA between the two companies and misappropriated trade secrets. 
Essentially Spring Design said that B&N copied its ideas and incorporated them into the Nook ereader.
Today comes word that the two companies have settled the lawsuit:
Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Spring Design will grant Barnes & Noble a non-exclusive, paid-up royalty free license for the entire portfolio of Spring Design patents and patent applications. The terms of the settlement are otherwise confidential. The settlement agreement announced today resolves all claims brought by Spring Design, which will be dismissed with prejudice.
Eugene V. DeFelice, Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Barnes & Noble, Inc., said, “We are pleased to put this matter behind us. NOOK ColorTM and NOOKTM, together with Spring Design’s patents and patent applications, have become two of our most innovative and highly-sought after devices. Barnes & Noble is pleased to add Spring Design’s patents and patent applications as a complementary addition to our rapidly growing digital portfolio.”
And what happened to the Alex ereader? It has been discontinued
and is no longer for sale. Spring Design says on its website, “In order to focus our resources on developing next generation eReader products and services, Spring Design is discontinuing retail sales of the Alex Reader at this time.”
The barriers to entry into the ereader market created by the low prices of the ereaders sold by content companies such as Amazon, B&N, and Kobo are steep and make it very difficult for hardware-only companies like Spring Design to succeed.
Spring Design says it is concentrating on its ReadMate technology that enabled the epaper and LCD screens to work so smoothly together on the Alex ereader. Co-founder Albert Teng is now running Spring after “ a major restructuring of the company.” I’m guessing that we won’t see any more hardware from Spring itself, but its technology might be used in other devices. The press statement from B&N says the license it received is non-exclusive.
This might be a big win for Barnes & Noble. The terms of the settlement between the two companies were not disclosed, but according to the statement B&N has access to the complete patent portfolio of Spring Design and will not have to pay any royalties for using any of it. If B&N releases a new version of the original Nook ereader we should at the very least expect the LCD screen to be much better integrated with the EPD than the current model, now that B&N has access to Spring’s patent portfolio.
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Spring Design vs Barnes & Noble lawsuit to continue no comments
Barnes & Noble has failed in its attempt to have Spring Design’s lawsuit against it dismissed, so the trial will go on. There is a pretrial conference scheduled for Feb. 7, 2011.
You may recall that Spring Design filed suit against B&N for violating an NDA and allegedly misappropriating trade secrets in its design of the Nook ereader. Both ereaders utilize a small LCD touchscreen under an e-ink screen. The size and functionality of the LCD are much different however.
via Reuters
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Amazon’s Dual Screen Patent – Trouble for the Competition? 1 comment
A patent originally filed in 2006 by Amazon and granted today and therefore made public might have ramifications to some of Amazon’s biggest competitors in the ereader space.
Some of the descriptions of what the patent is for:
A handheld electronic book reader device is equipped with dual displays. The device includes a first display for presenting visible representations of textual or graphic content related to the electronic book. The device also includes a second display positioned alongside the first display. The second display includes a plurality of graphic elements that correspond to portions of the first display. Also, the second display is responsive to user input to one of the graphic elements to perform an action on the content that is shown in the portion of the first display that corresponds to the one element.
and:
A handheld electronic device comprising: a first display for presenting visible representations of content, the first display comprising an electronic paper display; and a second display positioned alongside the first display, wherein the second display includes a plurality of graphic elements that correspond to portions of the first display, and wherein the second display is responsive to user input to one of the graphic elements to perform at least one action on content shown in a portion of the first display that corresponds to the one graphic element.
and:
42. A handheld electronic device comprising: a housing; an electronic paper display disposed in the housing and having a first surface area; and a liquid crystal display (LCD) disposed in the housing proximate the electronic paper display, the LCD having a second surface area that is smaller than the first surface area of the electronic paper display.
43. The handheld electronic device of claim 42, wherein the LCD has a rate of refresh that is faster than a rate of refresh of the electronic paper display.
44. The handheld electronic device of claim 42, wherein the LCD is substantially rectangular and is disposed below the electronic paper display.
45. The handheld electronic device of claim 42, wherein the LCD is touch-sensitive and is responsive to touch input.
46. The handheld electronic device of claim 42, wherein the electronic paper display and the LCD comprise a single structural element, with logically separate control systems for driving the electronic paper display and the LCD.
Does all of this remind you of any non-Amazon portable electronic reading devices? Perhaps nook and the Spring Design Alex?
CrunchGear has an interesting article about this with some interesting comments. Never a dull moment, indeed.
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Spring Design Alex to Begin Selling Today no comments
Spring Design is supposed to start selling its Alex ereader today, but so far the website is still displaying the same message:
Thanks for your patience. We’re almost ready with our Alex store.
Keep checking in and by the first week of March you’ll be able to order your Alex online. –The Spring Design Team
The Alex was originally supposed to go on sale in the latter part of February, but was then postponed until the first week of March. The originally announced price of $399 has been dropped to $359.
Spring Design’s new ereader should also be a available in Borders stores in a few months.
Update: Spring Design has indeed begun taking preorders for the Alex ereader. Preorders will be shipped by April 14, and the price is still $399 – not the $359 reported above.
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Spring Design vs Barnes & Noble Lawsuit Update no comments
Engadget is reporting that the judge has denied Spring Design’s motion for a preliminary injunction which would have stopped Barnes & Noble from selling its nook ereader. The court did find that there is a “genuine dispute”, so the trial will be continuing.
With the threat of an injunction out of the way, perhaps nooks will begin shipping now.
