We knew something was up with the
Spring Design Alex dual-screen ebook reader the instant we saw its
hastily-prepared web site published the night before
Barnes & Noble's Nook launch, and it appears that our hunch was right: Spring Design just filed a trade secret lawsuit against B&N, alleging that their designers showed the Alex to the bookseller's execs before the Nook was developed. According to Spring Design, the two companies had been in contact with each other over ereader designs since the beginning of the year, with various executives exchanging calls, meetings and product details under NDA -- which would certainly explain why there are suddenly two Android-based ereaders on the market with dual electronic ink and capacitive LCD touchscreen displays. Definitely suspicious, but we'd also note that the Nook and Alex actually work quite differently: users browse the web on the Alex's touchscreen and then
"print" the content they want to read to the electronic ink display, while the Nook doesn't have a browser and the touchscreen is only used for navigation, not content. We're digging for as much info as we can, and we'll hit you with more info as soon as we get it -- stay tuned.
posted Nov 2nd 2009 10:59PM
Hey...that kind of has a similar design, lets sue and get free media attention.
B&N were in contact with Spring Design...presumably they were shopping around for a manufacturer. SD presumably showed them their design, stated their price and B&N found a cheaper manufacturer while still coveting the design they saw from SD.
"Hay, erm, anon Chinese manufacturer...could you stick a colour screen in the bottom and use Android?"
"yeah, sure"
Now the manufacturer of the Nook has probably done nothing wrong, but B&N are the only ones who had full knowledge of what everyone was doing. I think it will all come down to who came up with the idea of using Android and having a secondary colour screen. B&N has no tech background so I doubt they came up with it, but they may have felt they owned anything that was pitched to them.
Except the Alex wasn't ever going to be released, so there's no need for free media attention.
One exists, the other does not. What's the problem?
They both exist and neither are being sold yet. The Alex seems much better since it actually has a browser. http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/20/watch-spring-design-alex-push-the-web-to-e-reader-format-video/
Ah, all I saw on their website was a couple of renderings. In that case:
Let the loud screaming swordfight begin!
I would agree.
The Nook merely seems to have "reconfigurable" colored buttons... can't use that small screen for much else. More like a novelty then anything else.
The Alex has a large enough color screen that it could actually be useful. A dual purpose device like that would be great; I would buy it in a heartbeat... if it had a whispernet 3G type of link to Amazon or B&N.
wow, if the nook did what the alex claims to do, id buy on in a heartbeat. nook = cute, alex = bad ass.
If they had been in contact for ebook reader's design, I think spring has right to sue..
For consistancy, I would recommend that they rename it the nOok. There would be no question then that the first letter should be lowercase.
Everyone knows that products that start with lowercase letters are better....
Let's try it on for size:
"nOok you very much."
@James: Touche.
Can someone please pass this memo around to the Engadget writers: nook. It's lower-case. That's why the logo is a big lower-case n. nook. Not Nook. nook. I don't give a flying bag of rabbit turds about this device, but for some reason it just bothers me that so many tech blogs are getting it wrong when it's lower case on the device itself, the logo is a lower case n, and the nook official site refers to the device in the lower case. Why's that so hard to do? You can get iPod and iMac right with the lower case, why not this thing?
Again, I'm no fanboy. I don't have this thing, and frankly don't really care about it. I just wish a tech blog as well-known and respected as Engadget would start getting it right.
d-_-b
I dunno, sounds like you could use a nook to me. Oh, wait, I meant Nuk, because you definitely need a pacifier!
Nook!
Do we have to refer to B&N as BARNES & NOBLE since their logo is all caps? Does it really matter? The logo is all lowercase, but it's a logo. When people refer to a device in writing shouldn't they use the proper capitalization used in the language in which they are writing? I'm tired of iMac, iPod, iPhone too. If I start a sentence with the word nook, should it still be lowercase?
Barnes and Noble actually uses both inconsistently throughout their site and press materials, and besides that, it's a proper noun. We intercap, we occasionally grant the awkward all-caps like DROID, but starting sentences with a uncapitalized proper noun... well, even our mess of a style guide can't handle that.
Nilay nailed it. But then, he's the best thing about Engadget, by a mile.
Nilay, on the next engadget show, I would like to hear more on your opinion about gadgets. Can you ask Joshua for that? I'd appreciate it. :)
everyone knows you only use all caps IF THE PERSON YOURE SPEAKING TO IS DEAF.
Yes, nook should be all lowercase. Even when nook is the first word in a sentence.
If you check out nook's features page ( www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/features/ ) you can clearly see how B&N uses the word nook.
Beginning of a sentence:
"nook's easy-to-read E Ink® display is more like a traditional book than a computer screen."
Middle of a sentence:
"Visit the store, turn on your nook, and see what pops up on your screen."
End of a sentence:
"Don't forget to select a cover for your nook."
Hehehe.
Well, the lesson to take home from this:
*If you would like your brand spelled consistently, never start in lower case.*
It always fails, because names like Nook start upper case. I made that experience twice, and I can guarantee that you won't get consistency in years.
Kabe
I agree that it's poorly named, but no one can argue that it's called the nook, lower case. Marketing inconsistencies just show that they, like many companies, don't hold their marketing department to a high standard, or have clearly defined naming convention for their products. The grammar argument bothers me because when you like a device (iPhone, DROID), you will follow capitalization rules. Just seems a bit arbitrary to me.
But I'm not trying to whine, just point something out to fellow writers. Almost no one gets it right, I just thought Engadget might be the most receptive to correction. Still it's not a bog enough issues for people to get their jockeys in a twist. It's minor, I just thought I'd point it out...
And I love that I'm low ranked for simply pointing out that the device name is supposed to be lower case. Very nice!
You're low-ranked for the poor attitude. Often how you deliver a point affects how well that point is received even more than the validity of the point itself. If you call yourself a writer, I would think you would know that.
There's that reason, and maybe a lot of people feel like I do and that intentional arbitrary destruction of English grammar by corporations is even worse than lazy writing by random people on the internet. But, probably not.
@James: Touche.
Ok, so I have to totally concede to Nilay on this. I noticed things like Facebook, for instance, which we always capitalize, technically is lower case (in some places, and then upper in others). I now have to agree that the Nook should be capitalized, regardless of the fact that the device uses lower case in the labeling. I think the exception for intercaps (iPhone) works because all lower case looks more awkward without it.
Looks like a even bigger battery drain. I don't like it. I want to read a book, not watch Video's and stuff, I might as well buy a netbook or something else then. A single Color Eink display might be ok, not really a big deal to me as I could care less about seeing a color book cover and the books I read don't have color pictures in them. That just incresses costs when prices need to get in the $99 range to get more mainstream. My new Kindle 2i works great. Does all it needs to. The battery lasts for a very long time before needing a recharge. I'm glad for more compitition, it gets better hardware at lower prices. A better ebook reader, YES, another all in one can't do any single 1 thing great and daily battery charging, NO.
The moment I saw the leaked pictures of the nook, I wondered at Spring's sudden "Announcement" of the Alex. Both products must have been in development for quite sometime. This isn't something that can be thrown together on a whim... not by a long shot. The devices look similar, but that's about it. I expect there's more to this than meets the eye... and I'm waiting for the nook to turn out to be a transformer.
How are these companies able to get patents on stuff that is so simple anyone should be able to think of. That's Only slightly exaggerating but suing and capitalism greed, wall street should be getting on anyone's nerves.
I agree with this to a degree. There are way too many "intellectual properties" rights that are granted to companies who have nothing but a photoshopped mockup of an idea. Complete vaporware, yet the companies who actually go to the effort to create the device gets screwed. Further complicating the issue is the fact that the people who grant patents and copyrights often know nothing of new technology and will grant a patent for a VERY broad idea. It simply stifles innovation by the companies who actually want to DO something with the technology. A good example is the company who is suing Twitter because they hold a patent for technology that can "alert many people at once through various means". Pretty much ANY online communication system fits that description. RSS? Email? Myspace? Facebook? I mean the list goes on and on. Again, the problem is that the people who granted the patent were probably completely ignorant of current communication technology.
Except in this case Spring Design already built a working model and plans to start selling it by the end of the year. Also the lawsuit is about trade secrets not patents.
I still prefer a Kindle over this nonsense. There are good ideas on the Nookie, but they seem to fall short on execution. If I were B&N (that sounds soo Dolce & Gabbana) I would have waited for those real hybrid screens we are seeing lately.
Seeing my butt. Those screens won't be out for another year and even then they will be a major battery drain. I have a Kindle. I'm selling as soon as the Nook is out.
There is nothing the Kindle does that the nook doesn't do, why they Kindle love? Especially since the nook has more features and doesn't waste space on a tic-tac keyboard or use a proprietary format.
@krizoitz
I feel the Kindle II provides a good reading experience, it is a focused reading device. On the Nook, the capacitive color touch screen is likely to detract attention from the eInk screen, even when it is off, it is likely to produce glare. I don't want to knock the nook down, because I like all the innovative features such as the ability to "lend" or "read in store" books, but I just don't see the color touch screen as a positive on these kind of devices, not when all I want to do is READ.
The Kindle reads books outloud, the Nook doesn't. I like the Nook navigation and native pdf rendering, but for me text-to-speech is huge. So until the Nook gets that, I won't be purchasing an eReader.
"Sue everybody." -- Sol Rosenberg
LOL, someone else who remembers the Jerky Boys. "Sue you, sue every-bahdy." Classic.
Is the nook's circuit board printable plastic? If so, wasn't it created by Plastic Logic two years ago?
The nook, the Alex, the Kindle and the Sony eBook series all look decent in various ways, but PL's QUE will be sold alongside the nook. Unless B&N severely compromised its functionality, the QUE looks to destroy every other reader on the market. Word docs, rtfs, Excel spreadsheets as well as the usual Acrobat files and eBooks, unrestricted wifi, ludicrous battery life -- all of it obliterates the restricted/crippled eReaders we've been getting.
The only question: why buy an exclusive eReader rather than a tablet-sized media player that reads eBook files? Don't let B&N and Amazon force you to buy their readers -- force them to make their stores available on every capable unrestricted device.
The QUE is fine if its what you are in the market for, but I don't want something that big to read off of, most books are smaller sized and therefore easier to read and hold, an 8x11 screen means an even larger device, not very useful for casual reading, but great for buisness use, which is where its being targeted. I'm looking forward to my nook, I don't need excel or word docs.
As someone mentioned, this lawsuit is about trade secret theft and contract breach (of the purported NDA) and not about patent infringement based on the article's description of the facts. If Spring Design can (1) show the NDA covers this dispute (and isn't rendered unenforceable in the process) and (2) that B&N used information obtained confidentially under that NDA in a manner inconsistent with its contract agreement with SD, ie for B&N's own designed product, then SD should win. Then, it could ask for an injunction to stop B&N from further using or transferring that confidential information, ask for damages to cover economic loss (if any) or pursue its rights, for example liquidated damages, under the contract aka NDA to the extent the court deems is enforceable. That said, an overhaul of the patent system, regardless of this case, is imho, seriously needed.
I remember more than just 2 ereader products with android and dual screen, it cant be coincidence.
those designs are completely different. the nook is awesome and simple. the other thing pushes what an ereader should actually do. internet?
I don't mind them using it, but I hope the internet community remembers I thought up the concept of an e-paper device with a secondary color display, right in the comments way back.
Just don't support the companies that are sue happy, lets let them die. I'm tired of this shit and you should be too.
Hey, the DS has two screens first. Can Nintendo sue too?
/sarcasm
I have news for them, if they were depending on trade secret protection and showed it to ANYONE not under a really tight NDA, then they are f-d.
This is actually pretty interesting and I wonder if this in some way has to do with why the Nook doesn't have a browser. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that they could build apps like a browser in the bottom touch area to display to the energy sipping e-ink display.
In these situations, non-disclosure agreements are not very strong defenses. Many companies in the e-book universe (like B&N) were likely to be looking at various e-reader designs at the time Alex was shown. Without something more substantial (like a patent), it is likely that B&N would be fine relying on one of the standard exceptions to NDA (e.g. independent development). As Internet and IP Lawyer, i would advise more caution when first considering pitching ideas to large companies. http:///www.web20lawyer.com