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Spring Design Sues Barnes and Noble Over Nook E-Reader
By: Nicholas Kolakowski
2009-11-03
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Spring Design, a small IT startup, claims that Barnes & Noble's Nook infringes on their own Alex e-reader. Both devices claim a dual-screen form-factor, powered by Google Android. The e-reader space has become more competitive in the past few months, with not only Barnes & Noble but a host of smaller startups announcing their own devices, all of them hoping to take market share away from Amazon.com and its line of Kindle e-readers.
What's the difference between two e-reader models, producedby separate companies, that both include dual screens and a Google Androidoperating system? According to Spring Design, which unveiled its Alex e-readerwith just such a form-factor on Oct. 19, not much—which is why it plans on suingBarnes & Noble over the latter’s own device, the Nook, that also runs onAndroid and features two displays.
"Spring Design unfortunately had to take appropriate actionto protect its intellectual property rights," Eric Kmiec, Spring Design’s vicepresident of sales and marketing, said in a Nov. 2 statement. "We showed theAlex e-book design to Barnes & Noble in good faith with the intention ofworking together to provide a superior dual screen e-book to themarket."
SpringDesign announced Alex on Oct. 19, a day before Barnes & Noble’s Nook madeits high-profile debut in New York City. As part of that announcement,Spring Design described a device that included a 6-inch monochrome electronicpaper display paired with a 3.5-inch color LCD touch-screen capable ofdisplaying multi-media content. It will be able to connect to the Web via Wi-Fior 3G, EVDO/CDMA and GSM mobile networks. The company suggested that, while itwas still looking for distribution partners, the e-reader would likely make itsdebut by the end of the year.
Barnes & Noble's Nook, which also runs on the GoogleAndroid operating system, features a 6-inch e-ink display alongside a secondmulti-touch display for navigation and book purchasing. During a presentation atChelsea Piers on the Hudson River, William Lynch, president of Barnes &Noble’s online site, demonstrated how that touch-screen component could be usedto flip through a book catalog and buy a book with twofinger-taps.
Spring Design claims that it had discussed the features andcapabilities of its e-reader with Barnes & Noble as far back as "thebeginning of 2009," and that the bookseller had signed a non-disclosureagreement regarding the device. The company did not specify a damagesamount.
"As a matter of policy, Barnes & Noble does not comment onlitigation," Mary Ellen Keating, a spokesperson for Barnes & Noble,said in an e-mail to eWEEK on Nov. 3.
The Nook is still scheduled for release at the end ofNovember, with a price point of $259. Barnes & Noble’s eBookstore, launchedin July, will provide Nook users with a library of some 700,000 downloadablebooks, alongside another 500,000 free public-domain volumes from Google; bookscan also be downloaded via a B&N app for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Barnes & Noble has aimed the Nook squarely at challengingAmazon.com’s dominant mind-share in the e-reader arena, and Amazon.com hasresponded by slashing the prices for its original Kindle device to $259.
While the overall market for e-readers remains relativelysmall, with Forrester Research predicting some 3 million units sold in the U.S.in 2009, they are increasingly important for online retailers such as Amazon.comand Barnes & Noble. Although Amazon.com has declined to break out exactnumbers, CEOJeff Bezos has claimed in the past that Kindle-related sales bring in 35 percentof his company's book-related revenue.
Smaller IT startups, including Plastic Logic, have alsoannounced plans to release e-readers into the marketplace. Plastic Logic’s QUE,scheduled to debut in 2010, will be aimed at the SMB (small- to medium-sizedbusiness) and enterprise markets, with the ability to download and displayMicrosoft Word, PowerPoint and PDF documents.
For much of 2009, Amazon.com managed to corner much of thepublic’s attention with high-profile debuts for each successive Kindle device, includinga rollout event in New York City for the Kindle 2 that included a reading bybestselling author Stephen King. As more devices from competing companiesprepare to hit the marketplace, however, the attention will likely shift toother devices—not to mention the lawsuits they cause.
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